Real Estate Daily News Buzz is designed to give news snippets to readers that our (yet to be award winning) editors thought you could use to start your day. They come from various business perspectives, real estate, government, the Fed, local news, and the stock markets to save you time. Here you will find the headlines and what the news buzz of the day will be.
Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 53.21 points, or 0.3%, to 16,484.99. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index added 8.53 points, or 0.4%, to 1,929.80. The NASDAQ composite index rose 39.02 points, or 0.9%, to 4,542.61.
Crude oil closed up 28 cents, or 1%, to $32.15 a barrel. Brent crude oil, which is used to price oil internationally, rose $1.14, or 3.4%, to $34.10 a barrel in London. In other energy trading, heating oil rose 3.7 cents, or 3.6%, to $1.059 a gallon, wholesale gasoline futures rose 4.4 cents, or 4.6%, to $1.01 a gallon and natural gas fell 0.4 cents, or 0.2%, to $1.778 per thousand cubic feet.
US new-home sales tumble in January, big decline in West — Americans stepped back from buying new homes in January, as purchases plunged sharply in Western states where prices are typically higher. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that new-home sales fell 9.2% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 494,000. Most of the decline stemmed for a 32.1 drop in sales in the West. The pace of buying new homes last month slipped below last year’s sales total of 501,000, a possible sign of mounting price pressures. But new-home sales also tend to be a volatile government report with revisions and large swings on a monthly basis. (ABC)
Macy’s Beats and Hints at Real Estate Deals “Macy's Inc. said profit slid in its latest quarter, dragged by a disappointing holiday shopping season, but the retailer beat expectations and hinted it has moved closer to potential real-estate transactions. Macy's said last month that it would seek out joint-venture partners to take minority stakes in some properties. On Tuesday, the retailer said it has gotten the ball rolling on potential real-estate transactions, noting that there has been ‘a high degree of initial interest at this preliminary stage.’” (MarketWatch)
Here’s How to Survive Bubbles in the Stock Market and Real Estate “We all know about the 2000 dot-com bubble and the 2008 real estate bubble. We like to think that if we’d been there we would have seen them coming. But bubbles are more deceptive than that. Genuinely smart investors lose serious money when bubbles burst. After all, that’s how they become bubbles in the first place: If they were truly obvious, so many people wouldn’t have gotten fooled.” (Vox)
Empire State Realty Trust Will Continue to Play it Safe: Malkin “Empire State Realty Trust chair and CEO Tony Malkin reaffirmed his company’s strategy for “embedded, de-risked growth” on Tuesday, telling investors he envisioned ‘no development, no joint ventures, no bidding or buying at current cap rates and no lending’ in the near future.” (The Real Deal)
Greater Boston Enjoyed Record-Setting Industrial Activity in Q4 “According to a new research report from Transwestern RBJ, the Greater Boston's industrial real estate market closed 2015 with a very strong fourth quarter, posting positive absorption totals and asking lease rates not seen in several years. ‘We'll usually see one or two property types outperform the other during a reporting period, but fourth-quarter 2015 saw the industrial market firing on all cylinders,’ said Northeast Research Director Chase Bourdelaise.” (World Property Journal)
Foundations of Residential Real Estate Market Showing Cracks “A series of reports released Tuesday pointed to potential cracks in the foundations of America’s residential real estate market. On the one hand, job growth and low mortgage rates have fueled demand and boosted sales to levels that were last glimpsed in the waning months of the housing bubble nine years ago. Those gains could spur more construction and additional spending on furniture and renovations that could help lift the economy. Yet the number of homes for sale has fallen.” (Portland Press Herald)
Aldi Sets Dates to Open Southern California Grocery Stores “Aldi grocery stores, a German-based company known for its low-priced private label goods, is entering the Southern California market for the first time, with locations in Fontana, Yucaipa and San Bernardino set to hold grand openings March 24, along with five other new stores in the Southland. Locations in Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley, Beaumont, La Quinta and Palm Springs are also set to open March 24.” (The Sun Business)
The CEO Who’s Reinventing J.C. Penney “Ellison, Penney’s newly minted 51-year-old CEO, had an idea. He ran a test to see whether men’s shoes would sell faster when showcased next to, say, men’s suits; once the data showed that they did, he instituted that change last summer across the company’s 1,000-plus stores. Since entrusting guys to buy their own brogues and boots, Penney has seen double-digit sales gains in footwear. ‘That reset has been one of the smartest things we’ve done,’ says Ellison.” (Fortune)
Affordability in the Motor City in Driving in NYC Real Estate Investors “Detroit, or better yet, the Brooklyn of the Midwest, is drawing in New York investors who are attracted to both a lower cost of entry and the opportunity for growth the once-tired city is now seeing. ‘It almost has a Brooklyn-type feel,’ said Adam Feldman, an acquisitions associate at HFZ Capital Group, which just made its first investment in the Motor City. ‘It’s what Brooklyn was like 10 to 15 years ago.’” (Commercial Observer)
Chicago Officials May Use Eminent Domain on Old Post Office “After years of waiting for a European-based developer to rehabilitate Chicago’s old Main Post Office in the West Loop, the city has had enough, announcing this week it was going to seek control of the 11.1-acre site along the Eisenhower Expressway. The decision by Mayor Rahm Emanuel and his administration could set up a battle over the eminent domain process.” (Commercial Property Executive)
Planned Sutton Place Tower in Jeopardy as Judge Allows Sale to Proceed “It looks like the fate of the planned 900-foot tower at Sutton Place is all but sealed. A judge has denied developer Bauhouse Group's request for an injunction against lender Gamma Real Estate to prevent foreclosure proceedings on the property. Last week it was reported that Gamma planned to hold the foreclosure sale for the property on February 29 after Bauhouse defaulted on its $147 million loan for the project.” (Curbed New York)
Facebook’s ‘like’ button gets ‘angry’ and ‘sad’ as friends — Facebook’s “like” button isn’t going away, but it’s about to get some company. Facebook has been testing alternatives to “like” in about a half-dozen countries, including Ireland, Spain and Japan. On Wednesday, Facebook started making “haha,” ”angry” and three other responses available in the U.S. and the rest of the world. You have to hold that button or mouse over the “like” link for a second or two for the alternatives to pop up. (ABC)