Month: July 2021

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The Delta variant and the CDC’s recent mask reversal is adding a new element of intrigue to return-to-work policies. (iStock) As the Delta variant fuels a nationwide surge in Covid cases, employers’ return-to-work plans are being thrown into a state of flux. This week, the CDC updated its public health recommendations, imploring the fully vaccinated…

Here’s where foreign homebuyers came from and bought during pandemic

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Buyers from neighboring countries made up the biggest percentage of foreign sales. (iStock) International sales were severely hampered by the pandemic in 2020, but buyers from several countries still managed to pluck down big bucks for U.S. homes. Barely more than 100,000 homes were sold to foreign buyers from April 2020 to March 2021, according…

Rise in home prices frees banks to offload mortgage risk

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From left: JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser and Texas Capital Bank CEO Rob Holmes (iStock, LowneyJen/Wikimedia, World Economic Forum/Wikimedia, Texas Capital bank) Banks are among the institutions taking advantage of a hot housing market by shedding mortgage risk with a new kind of bond. The bond shares the risk of…

Sam Zell’s Equity Residential reports recovery in rental occupancy

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Equity Residential chairman Sam Zell (Getty, iStock) The pandemic hit the bottom line of Sam Zell’s Equity Residential pretty hard, but the worst is finally in the rear-view mirror, executives of the real estate investment trust said Wednesday. “We acknowledge how badly our operations declined over the last 16 months,” said Michael Manelis, the chief…

Proptech revolution grows as landlords turn to big data to manage properties

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(iStock) The proptech revolution is accelerating as building operators turn to big data to monitor everything from tenant relations to their properties’ energy use. “Companies are making every piece of information available to every single person in the organization,” Anita Kramer, senior vice president at the Urban Land Institute Center for Capital Markets and Real…

CoStar Q2 net income down 17%

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(iStock) CoStar Group’s second quarter profits fell after a strong first quarter even as traffic on its analytics and online marketplace jumped. The real estate data giant posted $61 million in net income from April through June, down 17.5 percent from the $74 million in Q1, it reported Tuesday afternoon. Second quarter profits were about…

Mansion buyer beware: $43M spec home a “catastrophic failure,” suit alleges

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The Beverly Hills spec mansion that Ekkehart Hassels-Weiler bought in 2019. The property is full of structural defects that Hassels-Weilers alleges developers Ian Livingstone and Max Fowles-Pazdro concealed (Luca Lanzetta Group) Ekkehart Hassels-Weiler had already purchased a bevy of high-priced homes in Los Angeles and New York when he paid $43 million for an enormous…

Affordable housing bills stall over union labor requirements

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Senate Majority Leader Toni Atkins (Getty, iStock) As California’s housing crisis deepens, state bills meant to promote affordable development have stalled over union labor requirements. A handful of bills are stuck in the Assembly over their labor mandates, including two that are part of a housing package proposed by Senate Majority Leader Toni Atkins, according…

Urban Stearns plans apartment, hotel project in Woodland Hills

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Plans for the Woodland Hills project with Urban Stearns co-founder Shy Cohen (Togawa Smith Martin, Urban Stearns) Woodland Hills may be getting another apartment and hotel project. Developer Urban Stearns filed plans to build a 228-unit rental and 39-key hotel at 6036 N. Variel Avenue, according to Los Angeles City Planning documents. The Culver City-based…

John Legend and Chrissy Teigen wave bye to Beverly Hills mansion

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