Palm Beach condo sale prices fall, but homes rise [South Florida]

Evans Report: Palm Beach condo sale prices fall, but homes rise [South Florida]

Single-family homes in Palm Beach continue to be immune from the nationwide downturn in real estate prices.

But even a Palm Beach address isn’t protection enough against the deflating value of condominiums.

That’s according to the Evans Report, a closely watched real estate study by local attorney and developer Leslie Evans.

The median price of a single-family home sold in Palm Beach during the period was $4.3 million. That is a 9 percent leap over prices during the first six months of 2007, according to the report.

Restructuring of mortgage loans gets tougher

Restructuring of mortgage loans gets tougher

In January, loan analyst Moe Bedard noticed a promising development in the mortgage-servicing industry: More lenders started restructuring distressed borrowers’ loans to avert foreclosure.

But in the months that followed, the trend reversed.

“Now, it’s even harder to get a modification than it was five months ago,” said Bedard, president of Loan Safe Solutions, based in Coronado, Calif. “They’re just stalling now.”

The “they” to which he referred are loan-servicing units, the bank departments that negotiate with troubled borrowers seeking lower rates and lower monthly payments on their subprime mortgage loans.

Some businesses turn housing bust into a boon [South Florida]

Some businesses turn housing bust into a boon

In South Florida’s real-estate gold rush, the promise of instant wealth drew thousands of players into the local housing market. Cheap money flowed from lenders’ coffers lubricating a vast matrix of builders, sellers and buyers. No credit, bad credit, no problem.

The businesses in the middle — mortgage brokers, real-estate agents, title companies and a host of others — made easy killings. Many of them were newcomers with little experience.

The downturn abruptly ended the days of profit by fiat, but it is bringing fortune to a new legion of entrepreneurs serving a real-estate market awash in foreclosures.

South Florida residential market should feel effects of Opera Tower ruling

South Florida residential market should feel effects of Opera Tower ruling

A federal judge’s ruling that threw out dozens of lawsuits claiming a local condo project differed from its advertisement should affect the residential market, experts agree, though they predict varying degrees of impact.

A US district judge in Miami this month tossed out 29 lawsuits that claimed Tibor Hollo’s Opera Tower project didn’t deliver what the marketing brochure featured: amenities such as designer tile and an Olympic-sized pool.

Judge Patricia Seitz of the Southern District of Florida ruled that advertising materials do not trump contract terms, which in this case spelled out what buyers were signing for.

In Downtown, Concentrated Housing Trouble

In Downtown, Concentrated Housing Trouble

If the rate of new condo sales in downtown San Diego continues the way it did in the first half of 2008, it would take five years and three months to sell all of the new units in the city core, according to recent sales counts from MarketPointe Realty Advisors, a local real estate industry consulting firm. That’s about five times as long as the absorption rate for all of the new homes constructed around the county.

“That’s not a good number, but these are not good sales times,” said Robert Martinez, director of research at MarketPointe.

There are 889 finished condos available for sale in downtown San Diego, according to MarketPointe. That doesn’t count units in some projects that have been pulled from the shelf and rented out until the market improves. Another 705 units that are under construction remain unsold or uncommitted to a buyer with a reservation.

Las Olas Riverfront auction on hold after buyer emerges [South Florida]

Las Olas Riverfront auction on hold after buyer emerges [South Florida]

A foreclosure auction for Las Olas Riverfront was put on hold Tuesday, when an interested lender reached a last-minute agreement to take over the troubled retail and restaurant complex.

A lender of the Fort Lauderdale retail complex, Madeleine L.L.C., filed an emergency motion late Monday in Broward County Circuit Court to postpone the auction so it could exercise its right to purchase the loan on the property. Madeleine, an affiliate of Cerberus Capital Management in New York, agreed to buy the loan for $21.8 million from senior lender, ACF Riverfront, which took over the debt on the property after foreclosure proceedings began earlier this year.

If the sale closes within 10 days, the complex’s owner, Las Olas Riverfront Holdings, agreed to transfer the property to Madeleine in exchange for being released from any further liability.

“It was a fair outcome for all parties involved,” said Richard E. Berman, a Fort Lauderdale attorney representing Boca Developers and its founders Brian Street and James Cohen.