Dreams ruined, he walks mortgage plank

Dreams ruined, he walks mortgage plank

Finally able to speak, he apologized profusely through his tears, saying it had just sneaked up on him, that he hadn’t done such a thing in a long time. I told him to forget it.

His is among the heart- rending stories being told often in Colorado these days. Good-intentioned people are unwittingly getting in over their heads with home mortgages or they’re outright being fleeced by the unscrupulous at mortgage-signing time.

According to a report Wednesday, Colorado ranked first nationally in the number of home foreclosures filed in August – one new foreclosure filing for every 301 households – up 53 percent from a year earlier and the sixth month in a row the state has ranked first.

How to buy … investment real estate

How to buy … investment real estate

Investing in real estate most likely won’t produce the get-rich-quick results promised by many a late-night infomercial. But for investors willing to do some homework, make a good purchase and properly manage a piece of property, the rewards can be substantial.

Various strategies can be used on the road to real estate wealth. In one, investors “flip” properties by buying a house, renovating it in short order and selling for a profit. In another, investors purchase the property with the intent to hold it for many years.

A common approach is to purchase an income-producing property such as a single-family home, an apartment building, an office or retail building or farmland with the intent to rent the property or units within it. By having tenants, investors benefit from not only any appreciation over time, but also the rental cash flow. There’s also some inflation protection because as operating costs increase, rents can increase as well.

Harlem Staging Its Latest Renaissance – September 14, 2006 – The New York Sun

Harlem Staging Its Latest Renaissance

“Harlem has finally been recognized as being in Manhattan,” the chairman of global brokerage at CB Richard Ellis, Stephen Siegel, said. “It is a wonderful land for opportunity from a location, transportation, and developable site perspective.”

“Harlem has arrived. Almost every storefront is full, crime is way down, and the streets are clean,” the president of Gotham Organization, David Picket, said.

In 2008, Harlem residents and visitors will have the opportunity to shop at Target, which has six stores in the city and two more under construction. Last week, Blumenfeld Development Group and its joint venture partner Forest City Ratner announced that Target has signed a lease for a 135,000-square-foot mega store. It will serve as an anchor, along with Home Depot, at East River Plaza, a new shopping center located on the site of Washburn Wire factory site (which has been vacant for more than a quarter of a century).

Palm Beach County property values make waves [South Florida]

Palm Beach County property values make waves [South Florida]

Lee Berman of Palm Beach Gardens watched the value of his 87-slip Hypoluxo marina increase from $28.4 million to $44 million over the past year.

His property taxes soared with it, rising by more than $550,000, while his business income remained the same.

“I do see an injustice committed here,” Commission Chair Tony Masilotti said Tuesday. “Even if we roll back the (millage) rate, those properties would still double and triple in tax.”

The Berserkonomics of One Rent-Stabilized Apartment Building

The Berserkonomics of One Rent-Stabilized Apartment Building [New York City]

For decades, New York has owed a key part of its allure—its unwillingness to honor class divisions with geographic ones—to rent stabilization. Under the system, which governs rents for a million apartments in the city, wildly different tax brackets can be found sharing walls, watts, and water pipes. But is a rule that limits rent increases to prescribed percentages—and flies in the face of both soaring costs and a runaway market—still viable?

Not for MetLife, which is selling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, the fabled middle-class enclave where some 8,000 apartments still rent for about half the market price. Elsewhere, more than 200,000 units throughout the city have been deregulated since 1993, and virtually all new construction, promises of “affordable housing” aside, is betting the farm on luxury.

Florida’s oversupply of condo-hotels could spell big trouble

Florida’s oversupply of condo-hotels could spell big trouble

Florida leads the nation in the number of condominium-hotel rooms in the pipeline, but analysts fear an oversupply could prove troubling for developers and consumers.

The Sunshine State has more than 31,500 condo-hotel rooms under development, according to Smith Travel Research of Hendersonville, Tenn. Nevada is second with more than 30,000 rooms planned, while California is a distant third.

South Florida is a hotbed for condo-hotels, which investors consider a good alternative to second homes. Broward County has about two-dozen projects in various stages of planning and construction, including the Trump Las Olas Beach Resort in Fort Lauderdale. Condo-hotels also are planned for Palm Beach County, including conversions at the Brazilian Court Hotel in Palm Beach and the GulfStream Hotel in Lake Worth.