Best Blue-Chip Real Estate Investments

Best Blue-Chip Real Estate Investments

While gambles on up-and-coming neighborhoods and new developments paid off for many real estate investors during the boom, housing markets across the country are now awash with unsold condos and suffering from sluggish sales.

But this is not the case for homeowners in so-called “blue chip” neighborhoods. Properties in these well-established spots have held on to and increased in value over the last 17 years. They include segments of Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, areas of Chicago and parts of University Park in Dallas. In these spots, the median home sale price has grown, in that time, by 440%, 236% and 148%, respectively.

In search of these and other “blue-chips,” Forbes.com looked at home appreciation data from NeighborhoodScout.com, a Rhode Island-based real estate research firm that tracks these numbers at the Census-tract level. It revealed the spots in the country’s 15 largest metros which show the greatest total historical appreciation since 1990. After all, a truly robust market can weather market downturns and grow during market spikes, no matter how many cycles it goes through.

Real estate industry bill introduced [New Zealand]

Real estate industry bill introduced [New Zealand]

Legislation that creates an independent real estate industry watchdog with the power to impose stiff fines and ban “land sharks” has been introduced to Parliament.

Associate Justice Minister Clayton Cosgrove wants the changes in law by early next year and today’s introduction puts the bill on track for that.

The shake-up is a reaction to the current inhouse regime run by the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ), which has been criticised for weak penalties, unnecessary delays and a reluctance to refer complaints to its more powerful licensing board.

The changes will strip REINZ of its regulatory powers and establish a new independent Real Estate Agents Authority that will oversee licensing, complaints and disciplinary action for the nation’s 18,000 agents.

Lennar unloads 8,300 residential lots

Lennar unloads 8,300 residential lots [Tampa Bay Florida]

Metro Development Group is getting a hold of nearly 4,000 acres of land in seven counties after completing its largest land purchase in company history.

Metro, based in Tampa, is buying nearly 4,900 home sites in Pasco, Hillsborough, Polk and Sarasota counties as well as 3,400 other home sites in Lee, DeSoto and Brevard counties from Miami-based Lennar Homes.

The purchase – which was completed on Friday for undisclosed terms – was part of “long-range acquisition strategies developed” by the company, said Rob Ahrens, spokesman for Metro Development. The deal increases Metro’s land inventory by nearly 40 percent, and brings the company’s total land holdings to 30,000 home sites.

“We have tremendous confidence in Florida and the resiliency of the state’s residential real estate market,” said Ahrens in a release. “We know that current concerns about homebuilding will be resolved in the coming months, and when they are, we plan to be a major player in providing finished home sites to builders who will need them.”

Growing number of foreclosures creates a new scam

Growing number of foreclosures creates a new scam

J.D. Smith’s desperate bid to keep his Roxbury condo comes as a cautionary tale for the rapidly growing ranks of Massachusetts residents facing foreclosure.

Last summer, Smith sold his home for $1 in a deal arranged by National Foreclosure Centers, a Florida company that wooed him with unlikely promises: His mortgage would be repaid and he would receive more than $100,000 in cash, reflecting the fair value of his property. He could stay in the condo as a tenant. Best of all, after one year, he could pay a fee and buy it back.

“It seemed reasonable,” said Smith, who was 56 and tired of moving. “It seemed plausible.” It seemed like the only way to keep the home.

But Smith received only a fraction of the promised money. And the new owner quickly defaulted, returning Smith to the brink of eviction. He now believes he was the victim of a scam and is suing those involved in the sale.

It’s a condo conundrum [Central Ohio]

It’s a condo conundrum [Central Ohio]

The “for lease” signs are going up at central Ohio condominium complexes, to the chagrin of owners who paid full price to buy there.

Developers who have been trying to sell condos in a weak real-estate market now are offering to lease them with the option to purchase, while slashing prices. The deals are being made in far-reaching suburbs as well as Downtown.

MAS Cos., for example, planned 60 town-house condos next to Cumberland Trails golf course in Pataskala, with a heated pool and clubhouse and not far from other condos and single-family homes.

Two years later, only 18 condos have been built at Cumberland Chase, as the complex is called, and only two have owners.

Levitt and Sons’ bankruptcy leaves Orlando-area buyers without homes

Levitt and Sons’ bankruptcy leaves Orlando-area buyers without homes

The financial collapse of one of America’s legendary home builders has left people throughout Central Florida stuck with unfinished houses, liens against their properties, unopened clubhouses and community pools, and warranties that could be worthless.

Many of the victims, scattered throughout the Southeastern United States, don’t know whether their houses will ever be finished.

“We’re just kind of in limbo here and waiting to hear,” said Vincent Santanelli, a resident of Cascades at Groveland who helped his elderly father-in-law with a $20,000 down payment on an unfinished house in the Lake County community. “We haven’t even heard a word from Levitt.”

In Central Florida alone, several hundred families purchased lots and homes in communities from St. Cloud to Winter Springs that remain unfinished.