(Fortune Magazine) — Even if you flame out on Wall Street, you still get to keep the money. That’s one of the lessons we learn from the fall of Chuck Prince and Stan O’Neal, who have bitten the dust because Citigroup and Merrill Lynch had to take billions in losses on securities that were overvalued on their books. More…
(Fortune Magazine) — Two things stand out about the credit crisis cascading through Wall Street: It is both totally shocking and utterly predictable. Shocking, because a pack of the highest-paid executives on the planet, lauded as the best minds in business and backed by cadres of math whizzes and computer geeks, managed to lose tens of billions of dollars on exotic instruments built on the shaky foundation of subprime mortgages. More…
(Fortune) — Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae can only make it through a prolonged credit crisis if they raise billions of dollars of new capital. That, in a nutshell, is what the plunging stock prices of both mortgage buyers are saying Tuesday. More…
In this desperate, desolate, strung-out housing slump, it was only a matter of time before someone thought of T-shirts. When it comes to selling houses, these are the days of no shame. There’s a clever Gilbert mom who outfitted her kids with “Buy my house” T-shirts; a townhouse in Goodyear comes with Cardinals tickets. Buyers can get their closing costs paid, of course, but also seats at the Super Bowl if they seal the deal before Christmas. One far-flung seller in the Valley’s nether regions is offering a new car, plus $1,000 in gas money for all that commuting. More…
Guarded Optimism
Concerns about financing and a sluggish U.S. economy won’t deter commercial real estate investors.
Despite a softening economy and turmoil in the capital mar- kets, investors continue to have confidence in the U.S. commercial real estate industry. A survey of more than 1,000 private institutional real estate investors shows only one in five respondents believe the economy will be stronger in 2008, yet the majority want to invest more funds in the sector. More…
It’s the multi-million-dollar question facing the Valley’s commercial real estate industry: How badly will the housing market’s crash and subsequent sub-prime mortgage crisis hurt commercial development in 2008? More…
Who knew that the loonie would come to the aid of
WASHINGTON - The mortgage crisis intensified Tuesday as Freddie Mac, the nation’s No. 2 buyer and guarantor of home loans, posted its largest quarterly loss ever and warned that it might need to curtail its business unless it can raise fresh capital. More…
Even the Trump name isn’t bigger than the calamitous condo market. Donald Trump’s reputation as a real-estate developer could take a hit as some condominium projects emblazoned with his famous name run into trouble. More…
The volume of used homes sold in the metro
The Florida-based parent company of a major Valley home builder said it might have to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection after losing $619.7 million in three months. More…
Eighty-five bungalows dot the cul-de-sac that joins West Ontario Avenue and
Businesses and real-estate analysts are eagerly awaiting the completion of two high-rise projects in downtown Phoenix that are expected to help ease a chronic office-space shortage in one of the Valley’s top business markets. More…
TEMPE - The city’s Development Review Commission waved through the Monti’s La Casa Vieja high-rises during a marathon meeting Tuesday night, leaving the City Council as the last hurdle for the controversial project. More…
CHARLOTTE,
The CityNorth project in northeast Phoenix “topped out” on its first phase of construction late last week, and the Goldwater Institute “celebrated” by releasing two studies questioning a nearly $100 million subsidy Phoenix gave to the development. More…
CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Bank of America Corp. said Tuesday that it will take a $3 billion debt-related write-down in the fourth quarter and warned its losses could grow, adding to fears the nation’s housing and mortgage-lending slump might exact a greater toll than in the wretched third quarter when industrywide write-downs topped $40 billion. More…
The housing industry has problems with soaring foreclosures, big inventories and homes that take forever to sell. But there’s a related sector that has it worse. The manufactured-housing industry is suffering its lowest sales in at least 40 years. More…
NEW YORK - Shares of online brokerage E-Trade Financial Corp. lost more than half their value Monday, with a Citigroup analyst saying that customers were poised to flee and that the company was at risk of bankruptcy. More…