Month: September 2021

Contracts rose everywhere, especially in the South and Midwest (Unsplash / Birgit Loit) Employees who have the option to work from anywhere are increasingly buying homes in the Midwest and South, with affordability playing a key reason in the decision. Home contract signings rose across the country in August after falling for two straight months,…

Rounding out the top five list in terms of return on home investment adjusted for risk are Tampa, Washington DC and Boston (Getty) Though rising home prices and recent big-ticket office purchases have been held up as promising signs for economic recovery in major US cities, a Bloomberg column argues low price swings present a…

Ladder Capital CEO Brian Harris (Getty, Ladder Capital) Pressure on nonbank lenders reached a fever pitch during the pandemic as large real-estate securities portfolios made the companies look vulnerable amid the industry’s virtual pause. Now, nonbank lenders are on pace for one of their biggest years for loan volume, analysts and executives told the Wall…

Guess CEO Carlos Alberini and Andrea with the two houses (Getty, Hilton & Hyland) Guess CEO Carlos Alberini is getting more comfortable in Beverly Hills. Alberini and his wife Andrea closed on a 6,400-square-foot home at 1003 Benedict Canyon Drive earlier this month, according to public records. They paid $15.8 million for the house, located…

(iStock) Repeatedly delayed return-to-office plans may finally come to fruition in the coming months, a new report indicates. While office landlords and brokers once hoped that a majority of workers would be back at their desks after Labor Day, the spread of the contagious Delta variant has forced most employers to delay their plans. But…

While many companies have cut jobs in the last year, the pandemic has created at least one position at Gensler: anthropologist-on-call. “We’re trying to understand patterns [and] movement through space,” explained Co-Managing Partner Joe Brancato on the latest episode of Coffee Talk. “Why is one six person conference room on one side of a floor…

The boundary of Southern California Gas Company property, where Aliso Canyon Storage Field is located (Getty) Porter Ranch homeowners have been waging a years-long court battle against the Southern California Gas Company, whose storage well was responsible for the largest methane leak in U.S. history, one that sickened thousands of people in the San Fernando…

The national composite is now about 44 percent higher than its previous peak in July 2006 (Getty, Unsplash / Annie Spratt) Record growth in housing prices is showing no signs of slowing. U.S. home prices soared 19.7 percent year-over-year in July, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index. It’s the fourth…

Richard Barton, CEO of Zillow (zillowgroup.com, iStock) The increasing commodification of residential real estate is leading iBuyers — led by Zillow — to Wall Street. Last month, the company raised $450 million from a bond backed by homes it planned to flip — in other words, homes that Zillow purchased, but hadn’t yet sold. The…

Baranof Co-Founders Andrew Aiken (left) and Andy Hendricks (right) in front of planned facility at 1810 Venice Blvd. (Baranof Holdings) A Dallas-based self-storage developer is planning to build its second complex in Los Angeles, which continues to see strong demand for properties in the sector. Baranof Holdings is proposing a 142,000-square-foot self-storage facility at 1810…