News

After a 13-month run of steady price declines, U.S. commercial property prices rose 1 percent in November, Moody's Investors Service said this week. Despite the short-term boost, Moody's says it expects prices to resume falling in the coming months as occupancyand rental rates continue to decline, but depreciation should be less severe than the sector experienced in the middle of 2009, when some index readings showed price dives in excess of 5 percent.

Despite a lack of placement opportunities in 2009, foreign investors in real estate say they remain committed to the United States as their preferred real estate investment opportunity. This sentiment is underscored by a dramatic increase in the number of overseas market participants identifying the U.S. as offering the best potential for real estate capital appreciation, according to the Association of Foreign Investors in Real Estate.

RealtyBid.com, an online home auction company, says it has hit the ground running in 2010 by offering close to 1,000 REO properties to investors and homebuyers across the country during the month of January. As part of this effort, hundreds of properties have been added to the company's auction Web site in the past week.

In an announcement Thursday, The Alter Group, a corporate real estate developer based in Chicago, said it has formed Alter Asset Recovery, which will provide expedited solutions for lenders and special servicers holding distressed properties. The formation of this new affiliate comes at a time when distressed commercial real estate assets are potentially the largest challenge facing banks and other lenders.

As DSNews.com reported, Google has recently released its AdWords comparison ads feature, which allows consumers to shop for and compare mortgages. In addition to teaming up with Mortech, Inc., Google has partnered with Los Angeles-based Leads 360, West Palm Beach, Florida-based OpenClose Mortgage Software, and Costa Mesa, California-based PriceMyLoan.

For months, analysts and industry experts have assured the markets that the downturn in the commercial real estate (CRE) sector won't be enough to send the financial system into a second crisis - that it won't be the dreaded next shoe to drop because exposure is isolated to smaller, community banks. But FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair says that's not an accurate assessment.

Moody's Analytics, the risk management and research arm of New York-based Moody's Corporation, said Wednesday that it has acquired full ownership ofCommercial Mortgage Metrics (CMM) from CBRE Econometrics Advisors. CCM is an analytical model for assessing default and recovery risk for commercial real estate (CRE).

Although short sales are likely to increase in 2010, the jump in these transactions is unlikely to have any real impact on the housing market, according to a new study by Housing Predictor. While more at-risk homeowners are turning to short sales as an alternative to foreclosure, Housing Predictor says the small number of short sales that are actually approved by banks represent less than 1 percent of all homes facing foreclosure.

After rising steadily just before the end of last year in what some feared was the start of a continuing upward trend, interest rates on home loans have dropped for three consecutive weeks in January, according to reports from both Freddie Mac and Bankrate Thursday.

Res.Net, a comprehensive workflow management system, recently chose Providence, Rhode Island-based Lincoln Appraisal & Settlement Services to become an approved broker price opinion (BPO) and appraisal business partner.