Downtown Orlando towers have sales appeal [Central Florida]

Downtown Orlando towers have sales appeal

Owners of condo units in the Vue at Lake Eola, the region’s tallest residential tower, should begin moving in before the end of the year, the developer said Tuesday.

Work is almost complete on the 35-story building’s penthouse terraces, which overlook Lake Eola in downtown Orlando. And nearly 90 percent of the units have been sold.

“We’re making good progress,” said Mike Murray, a partner in the project. The crane that facilitated work on the upper floors of the 407-foot-high building has now been removed.

The tower has 10 penthouses, six of which have been purchased. Murray said only 40 of the 375 other condo units are still for sale. He’s confident the tower will be sold out before the end of the year.

Subprime defaults close mortgage firm [North Jersey]

Subprime defaults close mortgage firm [North Jersey]

Bergen County mortgage banker David Sadek was riding high a year and a half ago, serving sushi and shish kebab to investment-banking clients aboard his yacht A Loan at Sea.

His firm, founded in 1991, was on track to achieve a company record of $1 billion in annual loan sales. Home prices were rising, and the investment bankers who bundle loans together and resell them as securities to spread the risk were eager to buy loans and provide First Financial Equities and other companies like it with a steady stream of funds to make more loans, even to people with shaky credit histories and high debt levels.

It was “a good time to be in the mortgage business,” he told The Record in an interview.

But in the second half of 2006, the business went quickly downhill.

Developer Ross Says Real Estate At ‘Best Moment’ in History

Developer Ross Says Real Estate At ‘Best Moment’ in History

Wall Street is jittery about the fallout from a meltdown in the subprime lending industry, a slowdown in consumer spending, and a sagging retail sector.

But for master developer Stephen Ross, the chairman, chief executive officer, and founder of the Related Cos., the economy couldn’t be better.

“From the real estate perspective, this is the best moment in the history of the United States,” Mr. Ross said to a New York Law School group yesterday. “I wish we could freeze it in time because you know it can’t get any better.”

Mr. Ross is the new chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York, a powerful local industry trade association that traditionally excels in hyping the city’s real estate market. During his address to New York Law School’s Center for Real Estate Studies, Mr. Ross described a national and local real estate scene that is as good for developers as it has ever been.

Florida lawmakers want to help renters with cuts in property taxes

Florida lawmakers want to help renters with cuts in property taxes

The more than 850,000 residents of Broward and Palm Beach counties who rent their homes would benefit by changes key lawmakers say they are now willing to make to the tax cut plans taking shape in the Legislature.

Until now, many Republican lawmakers had wanted to leave landlords free to decide what, if any, property tax savings they would share with tenants. But top House Republicans have joined Democrats in citing the need for firmer guarantees that tenants, as well as property owners, profit from any property tax reductions that are enacted this year.

House Speaker Marco Rubio, R-West Miami, and other high-ranking Republicans say they are soliciting ideas from interest groups and fellow lawmakers on how to revamp a proposed tax-cut package so that it would also deliver savings to the more than 2 million Floridians who live in apartments or homes that belong to others. The original blueprint drawn by House Republicans was fiercely criticized as a bonanza for rich homeowners.

Bad houses, busted loans? For Midlands investor, it’s all good

Bad houses, busted loans? For Midlands investor, it’s all good

When mortgage lenders get stuck owning dilapidated houses in shabby neighborhoods, they often call James Odell Barnes.

Barnes works the rock bottom of the housing market, what his lawyer calls the “sub-subprime market.” He and his partners buy foreclosed homes by the dozens, sight unseen, often for just a few thousand dollars apiece.

They resell them to low-income buyers who would have trouble qualifying for bank mortgages, providing many buyers with seller financing.

“The reason the banks call me is, I will buy anything,” says Barnes, 55, who often can be found puttering around his 54-acre horse farm in this small town outside Columbia.

Casinos continue to push up property prices in Eastern Connecticut

Casinos continue to push up property prices in Eastern Connecticut

As Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs jump starts property values near the new casino in northeastern Pennsylvania, local casino leaders and real estate officials say real estate here continues to benefit from the gaming industry.

Norm Krayem, proprietor of Realty Estates in Groton and president of the Connecticut Association of Realtors, said after Mohegan Sun opened in 1996, the immediate area experienced a boost in property values.

“We saw pretty much the tripling of the values of residential properties along Route 32,” Krayem said. “Commercial values about doubled — from $125,000 to $150,000 an acre to $250,000 to $275,000 an acre.”

In 2004, Krayem sold a 78-acre tract with 780 feet of frontage on Route 32 in Montville for $2.4 million, then the highest price paid for a single parcel in town.