Todd Murphy's Law

Home Prices Rise - First Gain in 3 Years

Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller index, which tracks home prices in 20 metropolitan areas, rose 0.5% for the three-month period ending in May, compared with the three months ending in April. It marked the index's first increase after 34 straight months of decline, and came after a variety of housing indicators has shown glimmers of hope for the past several months.

Read Wall Street Journal Article here.

Download the S&P Case Shiller rerport here.

Terwilliger to Step Down as Head of Trammell Crow Residential

Ron Terwilliger, who estimates that he has built nearly 250,000 units of housing during his 30-year-plus career, will step down as chairman of Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential (TCR), effective Dec. 31, 2009.

During his 25 years at the helm of the firm, Terwilliger estimates that TCR developed more apartments than any other firm in the country. For instance, in 2009, 2008, and 2007, TCR ranked No. 1 on Multifamily Executive's Top 50 list of builders, starting 8,194, 10,936, and 8,037 units respectively those years.

As TCR grew under Terwilliger, it not only developed hundreds of thousands of apartments. It also grew leaders. That’s not surprising, given Terwilliger’s educational and career background. He graduated from the Naval Academy in 1963, spent five years as an officer, and graduated from Harvard Business School in 1970. He started in the business world at Sea Pines in Hilton Head, S.C., in 1970 and then moved to Dallas-based Henry C. Beck Co. in 1975. He made the move to Trammell Crow in 1978 and took over as CEO of TCR in 1983.

“Over the last decade, my interest has been shifting from a very dedicated focus on TCR and rental apartments to nonprofits and trying to help those that are less fortunate than I have been,” he says.

Terwilliger donated $5 million to the Urban Land Institute to establish the J. Ronald Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing; $100 million to Habitat for Humanity International; and $5 million to Enterprise Community Partners to generate more than $130 million worth of affordable housing throughout the country. In his retirement, Terwilliger will focus on being chair of the Terwilliger Center at ULI, Global Campaign Chairman at Habitat, an executive committee chairman at Enterprise, and a board member of The "I Have A Dream" Foundation.

“He has been a towering figure with Habitat for Humanity and the leadership of ULI,” says Doug Bibby, president of the National Multi Housing Council in Washington, D.C. “He’s been slowly transitioning his way into these other very important pursuits and this is the culmination of that.”

Read entire article in Multifamily Executive.

Title-Insurer Fees Draw Scrutiny

As falling home prices tempt more people back into the housing market in some parts of the country, politicians and regulators are raising questions about whether they may be paying too much for title insurance.

The U.S. title-insurance industry faces increasing pressure from regulators to justify the fees charged to consumers for ensuring they have clear ownership of their homes.

For most people, title insurance is just another mysterious fee they must pay when they buy a home or refinance a mortgage. Unlike some of those fees, though, title charges aren’t negligible. They range from several hundred to several thousand dollars—and last year totaled more than $10 billion for the title industry. Lenders insist on the insurance to protect them against the possibility that a taxing authority, another creditor or a disgruntled heir may have a claim to the property, among other risks.

Read more here.

Existing-Home Sales Rise; Prices Fall

WASHINGTON -- Existing-home sales rose again in June from the previous month, but prices are still down sharply compared with last year.

Home resales rose more than expected, by 3.6%, to a 4.89 million annual rate from a revised 4.72 million in May, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.

Read WSJ article here.

See National Association of Realtors research here.

Apartment Vacancy Rate Hits 22-Year High

The vacancy rate for U.S. apartments hit a 22-year high in the second quarter as rising unemployment reduced demand during what is usually the peak leasing season.

Rents fell the fastest in markets that have shed white-collar jobs, such as New York and San Jose, Calif., and in markets where many foreclosed homes and condominiums have been turned into rental property, including Las Vegas and Orange County, Calif.

Vacancy levels nationally rose to 7.5% in the April-to-June period, up from 6.1% a year earlier, according to Reis Inc., a New York real-estate research firm. Of the 79 markets tracked by Reis, 45 showed an increase in vacancies. Read More Here.

Vornado Makes a Big Bet on Distressed Properties

REIT Is Seeking $1 Billion for a Private-Equity Fund That Will Focus on New York and Washington.

Vornado Realty Trust, one of the biggest real-estate investment trusts in the U.S., is seeking to raise $1 billion for a private-equity fund to invest in the wave of distressed properties expected to hit in the next few years.

The move signals that Vornado, which has one of the industry's most respected management teams, believes it can raise equity more cheaply from private investors than in the public market. But the company, long a darling of investors, risks dismaying shareholders who hoped Vornado would use its investing expertise to do deals on its own balance sheet. Read more here.

Mortgage-Rescue Plan to Cover More Borrowers

The Obama administration is expanding the number of borrowers who can refinance home loans under its housing-rescue program, an acknowledgment that more needs to be done to help people who are upside down on their mortgages.

The administration said Wednesday that borrowers with mortgages worth up to 125% of their home's value will now be eligible to refinance under its program, up from a 105% limit.

To be eligible, borrowers must be current on their mortgages and have loans owned or backed by government-controlled mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan said the higher limits "will make a critical difference in our ability to help many more Americans...to stay in their homes."

Nearly 30% of homeowners with mortgages owe more than their homes are worth, according to Moody's Economy.com.

Wednesday's move is the latest indication that the refinance program, announced in March, has fallen short of expectations. In mid-June, the administration said 20,000 borrowers had refinanced under the program. The administration had previously said that the plan could help four million to five million borrowers who owed 80% to 105% of their home's value.

As recently as late April, Mr. Donovan had rejected the idea of expanding the program to borrowers who were more deeply underwater.

As many as three million borrowers could be eligible for the expanded program, according to Credit Suisse. But many of them have little incentive to refinance at current rates or couldn't qualify because of other limitations. Read more here.

Banks More Willing To Hold 'em

It seems banks are more willing to hold on to distressed properties than to make deals - at least for now.  Here is a series of recent articles on the subject.

New Evidence on Foreclosure Crisis: No Money Down, Not Sub Prime Loans Led to Mortgage Meltdown

Not Much Relief

So Many foreclosures: So Little Logic.

New Jersey Shore Builders Ass'n v. Township of Jackson LAND USE AND PLANNING - Set-Asides

Held: The Municipal Land Use Law does not empower municipal governments to require developers to set aside land for common open space or recreational areas, except with regard to applications for planned developments as defined in the Municipal Land Use Law. The order of the trial court in the Jackson Township case is affirmed, and the order of the trial court in the Egg Harbor Township case is reversed.

Download the case here.

Lennar's Strategies Shave Home Inventory

Creative sales strategies helped Lennar Corp. blow through unsold inventory and beat the Street's revenue estimate, but they weren't enough to narrow the quarter's loss. The builder also now has fewer homes to sell going forward.

Still, the Miami-based builder's stock soared Wednesday, jumping $1.37, or over 17%, to $9.19 in 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Read the entire article here.