|
WASHINGTON — Fannie Mae said Monday it may have to ask the
government for more financial assistance because the company cannot
sell $5.2 billion in tax credits. The Treasury Department last
week blocked the mortgage giant from selling about $2.6 billion in
low-income housing tax credits to investors that included Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. Because the investors could use the credits to reduce their
own tax bills, Treasury said the sale would result in a loss of tax
revenue greater than the savings to the government. "We have said
all along that we would make determinations based on what is in the
taxpayers' interests," said Andrew Williams, a Treasury spokesman. Con...
|
|
Nov. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
President Dennis Lockhart said the economy will probably recover
slowly from the deepest recession since the 1930s because of
rising bank losses, especially in commercial real estate.
“Now that growth has resumed, the overall objective of
economic policy should be to bring about a durable recovery and
an environment that reduces unemployment as quickly as possible
while containing inflationary pressures,” Lockhart said today
in a speech in Atlanta. “The process of achieving this
objective will necessarily involve judicious removal of
government supports and the normalization of monetary policy.”
Policy makers have expressed concern that rising commercial
real estate loan default...
|
|
HTML clipboardBuy apartments, hotels, land and distressed properties, but focus on infill
while avoiding the fringes; hold onto office buildings until the market
improves; look for deals in shopping malls, but only in upscale areas.
Oh, and go ahead and grab that Miami Beach ocean-view condo you've had your eye
on.
That was the advice to real estate investors from experts in a webcast release
WalletPop tapped into this week for the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2010
Report, co-sponsored by the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
The top 10 strongest markets for real estate investment remained largely
constant from previous reports, all strong business districts with close-in
residential development and mass tra...
|
|
In another sign that the housing market may have begun to recover, the number of people who signed contracts to purchase homes increased for the third month in a row.
WSJ's Nick Timiraos says that there is more good news for housing as the pending home sales index has risen for the third straight month, but may not entirely be out of the woods yet.
The National Association of Realtors said its index of pending-home sales rose 6.7% in April to 90.3 from 84.6 in March. Increases in contract signings typically lead to more sales a month or two later.
Continue Reading At The Wall Street Journal
|
|
Hovnanian Enterprises, the home builder, said Tuesday that it cut its quarterly loss, but its revenue fell by nearly half as it cut prices to encourage sales.
The company pointed to the increase in new-home contracts per community, a lower rate of cancellation on home orders during the quarter and “more stability” in home prices the last six weeks as indications that the housing market was beginning to thaw.
But the builder said the stirrings of a housing turnaround might weaken unless the government extended the life and amount of an $8,000 tax credit for first-time home buyers and did more to stave off foreclosures.
Continue Reading At NYTimes.com
|
|
When home builders Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. and Toll Brothers Inc. report results this week, industry watchers will be looking for any signs of resurgence in a sector that has been on life support for years.
The home-building sector has been slammed in part because of oversupply of new and existing homes in recent years, which was followed by a steep increase in loan delinquencies and defaults.
Luxury home builder Toll Brothers and family-controlled Hovnanian have reported a string of losses, with Toll Brothers last reporting a profit nearly two years ago and Hovnanian having a 10-quarter streak of red ink.
Hovnanian will issue its results on Tuesday, with Toll Brothers reporting a day later. Wall Street expects both to post narrower fiscal-second-quarter losses, as ...
|
