Green Homes - Real Estate Weblog

Tropicana Atlantic City Casino & Resort is set to come under new ownership, just over one year after owner Tropicana Entertainment L.L.C. filed for Chapter 11 protection. But it's not a big-name gaming company that will take over the property's reigns. The United States Bankruptcy Court in Camden, N.J., has green-lighted a "stalking horse" asset purchase agreement calling for pre-petition lenders--a group that includes billionaire investor Carl Icahn's Icahn Capital--to take hold of the asset in return for forgiving $200 million of debt owed by Tropicana.

Home prices continued to tumble in April, falling 18.1% from a year earlier -- but the change from March narrowed sharply, indicating that housing markets may be starting to turn.

Multiple landlords attempted to lure NBA Properties to other locations in Manhattan and across the Hudson River but Olympic Tower Associates' signed NBA Properties Inc. to a 10-year, 153,000-square-foot renewal at 645 Fifth Avenue.

As if celebrities didn't have enough problems--like paparazzi and wrinkles--along comes the housing bust to tarnish their silvery existence. a story by Laura Mann of Newsday. That's the tippy top of Christie's house, known as Tower Hill, in the photo. It's been on the market for $30 million ever since 2007. Don't feel too bad for the uptown girl, though. According to Newsday, she bought Tower Hill in the late 1990s for less than $3 million.

When the easy money was flowing, you could get a great deal on a mortgage from just about anyone. But in today's credit-challenged world, all the avenues for finding a mortgage come with their own set of problems.

Ory Schwartz, senior director of NorthMarq Capital's Los Angeles office, has arranged an $18 million first mortgage for Meadowridge Apartments, a 176-unit multi-family complex located in Santa Clarita, Calif.

Newly-formed value-added real estate fund KABR Real Estate Investment Partners L.L.C. has purchased a 235,000-square-foot office building at 85 Challenger Road in Ridgefield Park, N.J., from AIG.

Are banks overwhelmed and understaffed for all the work coming out of the housing bust? On June 24, Ciitgroup said it was temporarily suspending new loans brought to them by independent mortgage brokers as it seeks to fix “quality control” issues regarding loan documentation. Rob Jenson, a real estate agent with the Jenson Group in Las Vegas says he’s been trying for eight months to get Bank of America to approve the sale of house for less than the loan amount, a so-called short sale that banks say they are working more diligently to accommodate. “It’s insane,” Jenson says. “It’s getting worse.”

The house Jenson is having problems selling was originally listed for $795,000 in November. It's a five bedroom, 4,500 square foot home in the Vegas suburb of Summerlin. Jenson immediately got a full-price, all-cash offer which he submitted to the bank late last year. “It took two to three weeks to get a workout negotiator,” he says. “Then they order an appraisal, additional documents from the seller.” Two months later the bank said okay to $795,000, but by then the buyer had moved on.

That started the process all over again. Jenson brought in another buyer, but this one needed to get a loan. By then the house had fallen in value. The property appraised at only $747,000 and the buyer couldn’t get a mortgage for the higher purchase price.

Jenson said the bank negotiator he’s been dealing with said she’s got 145 files that she is working on at once. “Bank could create some jobs,” a frustrated Jenson says. “They should hire more negotiators.”

A former Verizon call center in Upper Darby, Pa., has been acquired by a buyer with plans to transform the 84,000-square-foot property into office space.

Omega Commercial Finance Corp. has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in EcoCalifornia L.L.C., a firm currently in the process of developing a golf resort and housing project in the Fresno, Calif., area.