Real Estate Daily News Buzz Aug. 28, 2017
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.
Friday, the Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 4.08 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,443.05. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 30.27 points, or 0.1 percent, to 21,813.67, the Nasdaq composite dipped 5.68, or 0.1 percent, to 6,265.64. Benchmark U.S. crude added 44 cents to settle at $47.87 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, gained 37 cents to $52.41 per barrel. Wholesale gasoline was little changed at $1.67 per gallon, heating oil was virtually unchanged at $1.62 per gallon and natural gas fell 6 cents to $2.89 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Stocks climb; S&P 500 breaks two-week losing streak — Stocks rose on Friday, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index cruised to its first winning week in the last three. It was a relatively quiet week, with fewer shares trading hands than usual. The S&P 500 barely budged off course after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave her highly anticipated speech in the morning. The day’s other headline event, a speech by European Central Bank head Mario Draghi, likewise did little to alter the course for stocks.
LAST-MINUTE VOTING OPTIONS – If you missed Wednesday’s deadline to mail back your ballot in time for it to be counted in the City of Tucson’s primary election next Tuesday, you still have some options available. Four sites will be used as ballot locations or drop-off sites on Election Day. The sites will be open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m. You can also return your ballot today until 5 p.m. and Monday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Tucson City Clerk Elections Center, 800 E. 12th St. (extended hours on Election Day). The contested races are in Wards 3, 5, and 6. Voters in those wards should check their voting materials for the specific location of their drop-off site. For more information, call (520) 884-VOTE (8683). Tucson City Clerk’s election page: https://1.usa.gov/1Jw2Box
Amazon Says Whole Foods Deal Will Close Monday, with Discounts to Begin Then “Amazon announced on Thursday that its acquisition of Whole Foods will close on Monday. As the two companies work to integrate their business, customers will immediately see ‘lower prices on a selection of best-selling staples across [Whole Foods] stores.’ And Amazon promises ‘more to come,’ as the internet giant begins to integrate Prime into the Whole Foods ecosystem. Eventually, Prime members will receive ‘special savings and in-store benefits.’” (CNBC)
Yellen: Any Change to the Regulations That Police Wall Street Should Be ‘Modest’ “Reforms put in place after the 2007 to 2009 crisis have strengthened the financial system without impeding economic growth, and any future changes should remain modest, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said Friday in her fullest defense yet of the rules put in place after the Great Recession.” (Reuters)
WeWork Just Raised Another $4.4 Billion from SoftBank “WeWork has raised $4.4 billion in funding from SoftBank Group and SoftBank Vision Fund, the office sharing startup announced Thursday. SoftBank is investing $3 billion in WeWork itself, and putting another $1.4 billion into three new WeWork subsidiaries — WeWork China, WeWork Japan, and WeWork Pacific. As part of the investments, SoftBank will is naming two directors to WeWork’s board.” (Business Insider)
The Most Popular Cities Where House Hunters Want to Move Right Now “Homebuyers apparently have their eyes on Colorado. Colorado Springs, Colo., is the city that will likely have the most home sales in the third quarter, according to an analysis by ATTOM Data Solutions, a data firm that specializes in real estate, based in Irvine, Calif. Next on the list were Chicago, Washington, D.C., Reno, Nev., and Lexington, Ky. In some of the nation’s hottest housing markets, there was more interest in counties farther away from jobs but with more affordable homes, said Daren Blomquist, a senior vice president at ATTOM.” (MarketWatch)
A Third of Luxe Real Estate Deals Involve ‘Suspicious Activity’ “The Treasury Department said that 30 percent of high-end real-estate deals that were subject under a new watchdog program involved ‘suspicious activity’ and potential money-laundering. Treasury this week expanded and extended a program targeting luxury real estate deals in New York, Miami, Los Angeles and other big markets to prevent the use of real estate for money-laundering by overseas buyers. The program was designed to prevent buyers from using shell company’s or LLC’s to hide the identities of the real buyers.” (CNBC)
Judge Grants Pipeline Easements on Holdout Properties “A federal judge in Pennsylvania says a gas pipeline company can seize easements it needs from five final holdout property owners including land owned by nuns on which activists built an outdoor chapel to protest the project. Wednesday’s ruling means Transcontinental Pipe Line Co. has no obstacles to its Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project. An attorney for The Adorers of the Blood of Christ says he’s not sure whether the nuns will appeal Wednesday’s ruling.” (U.S. News & World Report)
SF’s Transfer Tax Revenue Jumps as Commercial Properties Change Hands “A concentration of high-value commercial properties changing hands in the last fiscal year helped San Francisco collect the highest amount of transfer taxes in the city’s history, San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu reported Thursday. Between July 1, 2016, and June 30, San Francisco collected $411 million in transfer taxes, which the city levies on transactions of taxable properties. That figure, which makes up 12 percent of the city’s general fund revenue, eclipsed the previous high for transfer taxes, set two years ago, by $97 million.” (SF Gate)
Data Center Construction in America Spikes 43 Percent in 2017 “A new report from global real estate consultant JLL reveals that as consumers turn to their smartphones for everything from streaming video to buying their groceries, the data center industry is stepping up to meet escalating demand for storage. Because of such, data center construction in North America is up 43 percent from 2016 and industry consolidation powered a $10 billion surge in mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the first half of 2017. Meanwhile, cloud leasing activity started shifting to global markets.” (World Property Journal)
Economy Watch: U.S. Hotels to Grow at Slower Pace in 2018 “The U.S. lodging industry will continue to grow across all major metrics in 2018, but at a slower pace, according to a recent report by CBRE Hotels’ Americas Research. The company forecasts increases in occupancy, average daily room rate (ADR), revenue per available room (RevPAR), total operating revenue, and gross operating profits in 2018, compared with this year. CBRE is forecasting a 0.1 percent occupancy increase, along with a 2.3 percent rise in ADR for 2018. The net result is a projected 2.4 percent boost to RevPAR.” (Commercial Property Executive)
Ulta Beauty Beats Street; On Track to Open 100 Stores in 2017 “Ulta Beauty turned in another winning quarterly performance, besting analysts’ earnings and sales estimates. The beauty powerhouse also raised its fiscal 2017 guidance. One of the few specialty retailers with an aggressive store opening program, Ulta Beauty said it remains committed to opening 100 new locations in 2017. It will also remodel 11 stores and relocate seven others. Ulta Beauty earned $114 million, or $1.83 a share, in the second quarter ended July 29, compared with $90 million, or $1.43 a share, in the year-ago period. Analysts had expected earnings of $1.78 a share.” (Chain Store Age)