Students find luxury near campus [North Florida]

Students find luxury near campus [North Florida]

Jacey Dykstra’s condominium is anything but an average student residence.
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The University of Florida sophomore nursing student comes home to 10-foot ceilings, granite countertops, French doors that open onto a private balcony and walls so thick, she never hears any of her more than 80 neighbors.

Todd Shealy, who owns Campus View development company Focus Real Estate Group, is building an additional 49 two-bedroom units to the 66 already inhabited. Shealy said he has sold a single unit for as much as $340,000 and is selling the two-bedroom condos for a base price of $229,000.

“They seem to be selling as fast as we can build them,” he said.

Phoenix Couple Struggles to Hold On To Several Investment Properties

Phoenix Couple Struggles to Hold On To Several Investment Properties

We’ll be periodically checking in with home sellers, owners, buyers and investors who have been affected by the cooling real-estate market.

The Investors: Donna Butera, 47 years old, a home-staging professional, and her husband, Mark Butera, 45, a contractor, in Phoenix. The Buteras got started in real-estate investing in 2001, and to date, have turned a profit on 12 properties that they have renovated and sold.

The Investment: In 2005 the Buteras bought six properties — four single-family homes in Phoenix, plus a house and condo in Scottsdale, Ariz. With the exception of the condo, which they intended to use as a short-term vacation rental, they had hoped to quickly renovate and sell the other properties.

On the foreclosure tour [South Florida]

On the foreclosure tour [South Florida]

The latest trend in a South Florida housing downturn limping into its third year?

Traveling tours of foreclosed homes.

Desperately hoping to drum up business, real estate firms across the region are starting to offer the roving service each month. The concept, agents say, began in California and has spread east to other states burdened by foreclosures.

Last Thursday, a zebra- striped Hummer limousine rolled to a stop in front of a vacant, two-story yellow house on a corner lot in Tequesta, the northernmost municipality in Palm Beach County.

Office Investor Broadway Partners Faces the Music on Short-Term Debt [Manhattan]

Office Investor Broadway Partners Faces the Music on Short-Term Debt [Manhattan]

Broadway Partners put its name up in lights by being one of the most aggressive buyers of office skyscrapers in the past two years. Now, it’s scrambling to put its financial house in order.

Broadway, a closely held New York-based office investor, bought $13.6 billion of office towers from 2002 to 2007 — flipping some for handsome profits. But it also bought several billion dollars of property with short-term debt near the top of the market in 2006 and 2007. When real-estate markets seized up last summer, Broadway was suddenly put on defense and is now trying to shore up its finances before the debt comes due in early 2009.

Broadway’s predicament is another sign of the dangers of short-term debt to once-highflying property players in today’s beleaguered commercial real-estate market. New York tycoon Harry Macklowe, unable to refinance $7 billion in short-term debt, has agreed to give his lenders the keys to seven Manhattan towers. Mall owner Centro Properties may be forced into liquidation if it can’t get an extension beyond April 30 on $4.9 billion in debt it obtained last year.

Construction Companies Are Clamoring for Managers

Construction Companies Are Clamoring for Managers

Despite rising interest rates, new home sales and housing starts remain remarkably robust. July housing starts jumped 8.3% over the prior month and 4.5% over year-earlier levels to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.978 million, the Commerce Department reports. The industry’s run of good health is causing homebuilders nationwide to scramble for managers to oversee existing projects and plan for future growth.

“Our sales are so good that our challenge right now is finding the project managers who can build and deliver those homes,” says John Downs, vice president of human resources at Toll Brothers Inc., a large builder of luxury homes based in Huntingdon Valley, Pa. Toll Brothers in August reported record third-quarter and year-to-date results in revenues, backlog and home-purchase contracts.

The dearth of middle-management talent confronting Toll Brothers also stymies other homebuilders and, indeed, construction companies. While qualified senior-level executives are reasonably available, finding skilled and experienced middle managers — where the need is greatest — is an unending, often fruitless quest.

Unpaid fees trouble condos [South Florida]

Unpaid fees trouble condos [South Florida]

From the West Broward suburbs to Miami’s trendy Brickell high-rises, condo associations are raising fees or cutting services because some of their members aren’t paying their share.

At the Fountains of Tamarac, the condo association has no insurance, a couple of unit owners are cutting the community’s grass themselves, and 90 percent of the unit owners aren’t paying their maintenance fees.

Even two banks, both of whom acquired their condos out of foreclosure, haven’t paid their dues.