For investors interested in multifamily housing, the proposed unwinding of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-controlled GSEs that many hold largely responsible for the housing crisis of the past few years, could be great news. In the white paper released two weeks ago to much fevered debate, one overlooked aspect of the end of Fannie and Freddie has been their impact on the multifamily market. While many investors fear that removing the GSEs from the multifamily loan equation could leave them high and dry without funding for development and …

A Texas entrepreneur singlehandedly raised nearly $8 million dollars to fund two commercial investments in New Mexico and Texas, which would have been impressive if the money had gone to building the large-scale retail development projects that he was pitching to would-be investors. Unfortunately, instead of building retail space, he spent most of the investment capital on “expenditures unrelated to the two projects” and now faces up to a total of 200 years in federal prison[1]. The 68-year-old man, Eric Brauss, who was indicted late last week, was indicted on …

Many commercial real estate investors are reeling right now from miscalculations made in past years about what the future would hold in commercial real estate. Senior-living developers are working on innovative solutions to turn struggling communities that were predicted to fill with baby-boomers into viable businesses (read that article here), and while everyone agrees that a double-dip is unlikely, many commercial analysts are having trouble determining just when the market will overcome high unemployment and massive uncertainty to really bounce back. So it’s not particularly surprising that a niche of …

Oregon’s legislature must be fed up with all the brouhaha surrounding mortgage assignments because Senate Bill 663 in that state would prohibit “the sale, assignment, conveyance or transfer of the loan or right or obligation to service the loan” for five full years after the closing date[1]. The Oregon Senate Committee on General Government, Consumer and Small Business Protection sponsored the bill. Not surprisingly, this extreme proposal has elicited some extreme responses, and many fear that if it passes, it would decimate the Oregon economy. Bill 663 would effectively tie …

An historic structure in Detroit will now take on new historic significance as its new owner combines two popular forms of commercial real estate in one building: senior housing and a luxury hotel[1]. Mike Roberts, CEO of St. Louis’ Robert Companies, believes that his initial and groundbreaking entry into the Detroit market in the former riverfront Omni Hotel will be successful because it combines cash-flow consistency with the higher volume of profits possible in a hotel. “The senior residence side of things will give us a consistency in cash flow …

According to the fourth annual Sustainability Survey conducted by CoreNet Global and Jones Lang, LaSalle, half of corporate real estate executives will “pay extra for space in green buildings”[1]. The survey also indicated that “sustainability” plays a major role in how businesses select office space, with 64 percent of respondents saying that this factor is a “critical business issue” and 92 percent citing it as criteria in location decisions. Fully 50 percent were willing to pay more for green leased space in 2010 – a 13 percent jump from 2009.
Interestingly, …

Jones Lang LaSalle is reaping the rewards for results. According to Reuters, the company’s fourth-quarter earnings “blew past Wall Street’s forecast” with shares rising more than 6 percent this week[1]. The real estate investment firm is predicting continued success in profits as “2011 global commercial real estate investment [rises] 20 to 25 percent to $380 billion,” said the chief executive Colin Dyer on a conference call yesterday. He predicts that in the Americas alone, transaction levels will climb 40 percent this year.
Dyer credits the company’s success in recent quarters to …

In spite of ongoing foreclosure moratoria and other administrative delays that you might expect to keep homeowners – even the distressed ones – in possession of their homes for longer periods of time, U.S. homeownership rates hit a 13-year low at the end of 2010[1]. While some analysts believed that homeownership might actually rise slightly in the wake of the robo-signer fiascos that threatened to stall many lenders’ foreclosures indefinitely, the Census Bureau reported this month that homeownership fell another 0.4 percent in the final quarter of 2010, bringing homeownership …

Although the commercial real estate market – and leased retail space in particular – has struggled over the past two years, many malls “in urban settings have managed to thrive in spite of the recession”, according to a California real estate broker specializing in retail properties[1]. While Richard Rizika admits that malls in his locale, Los Angeles County, are “faring much better…than in the nation on average,” he believes that a shift in the way that stores are promoting themselves and the locations that retailers find attractive could actually ultimately …