Real Estate Daily News – December 13, 2013

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 for the day will be.

Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 104.10 points, or 0.66%, to close at 15,739.43. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 6.72 points, or 0.38%, at 1,775.50. The NASDAQ composite dropped 5.41 points, or 0.14%, to 3,998.40. Benchmark U.S. oil for January delivery rose 6 cents to close $97.50 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

TRUST LAND PURCHASED TO EXPAND TORTOLITA MOUNTAIN PARK
TUCSON – Pima County acquired 818 acres of state trust land for expansion of Tortolita Mountain Park. Pima County had wanted the parcel for some time and was finally able to use a state Growing Smarter matching-fund grant of $1.2 million dollars, along with some development fees and general-fund dollars, to purchase the parcel at a State Land Department auction. The total cost of the purchase was $2.45 million ($2,995 per acre). Tortolita Mountain Park is located north of Tucson and contains more than 5,600 acres of open space.

ELOY PROPOSES ANNEXATION OF LAND NEAR PHOENIXMART
ELOY – In a regular Eloy City Council meeting on Monday, staff proposed to the council that the city annex 160 acres of land located about one mile from PhoenixMart, a planned global commerce center that broke ground in November. The council meeting also included a public hearing on the proposal, though there were no comments or questions from the public or anyone in the audience on the issue. The property, located at the southeast corner of Florence Boulevard and Toltec Buttes Road, is owned solely by Robson Communities. The land is within the city’s planning area, but also within Casa Grande’s planning area. When questioned by council members, interim city manager and Community Development Director Harvey Krauss said that Casa Grande would not legally be able to initiate an annexation on the property since Eloy has already begun the process. After Monday’s public hearing, the city has one year to obtain the signature of the property owner. According to Krauss, Robson Communities is in favor of annexation of the property into Eloy. In addition, Robson hopes to enter into a pre-annexation development agreement with the city.

EXXON: RISING LIVING STANDARDS PROPELL ENERGY NEEDS
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil says the drive for higher living standards around the world will keep demand for electricity and transportation fuels growing even as economies get more efficient and governments put a price on pollution. The company’s annual long-term energy outlook, released Thursday, predicts world energy demand will grow 35 per cent by 2040 as electricity and modern fuels are brought to some of the billions of people in the developing world who currently live without power or burn wood or other biomass for cooking and heating. Those growing needs will be somewhat offset by a slow decline in consumption in the far more energy-hungry economies of the developed world.

LABOR GROUP SEES PROGRESS AT MAJOR APPLE SUPPLIER
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A labor group monitoring three Chinese factories that make iPhones and other Apple products says once-oppressive working conditions have steadily improved in the last 18 months, but more must be done to reduce the amount of overtime that employees work. The audit released Thursday by the Fair Labor Association represents the final assessment in a process that started last year at plants run in China by Apple’s largest supplier, Foxconn. Reports depicting the Foxconn plants as inhumane sweatshops prompted Apple Inc. to hold its foreign contractors to higher standards. The Cupertino, Calif., company joined the Fair Labor Association last year as part of a commitment to improve the situation. The report concluded Foxconn factories in Longhua, Chengdu and Guanlan had reached virtually all the goals set out in a plan adopted last year.

CONSUMERS’ BIG PURCHASES LIFT HOPES FOR US ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans ramped up spending at retail businesses in November, providing a boost to the economy just in time for the holidays. But traditional retail stores didn’t benefit as much from the latest burst of spending. Consumers bought more cars, electronics, furniture and other big-ticket items. They also did more shopping online. Those trends reflect changes in consumers’ shopping habits and in the broader economy. Total retail sales rose 0.7% in November, the Commerce Department said Thursday. It was the biggest gain in five months. And spending at retail businesses rose 0.6% in October, higher than previously estimated.

FORD PLANS 23 NEW CARS, 11,000 NEW JOBS IN 2014
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. says it will hire more than 11,000 people in the U.S. and Asia next year to support an aggressive rollout of new vehicles. Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president of the Americas, said the company plans to hire 5,000 workers in the U.S. — including 3,300 white-collar staff like engineers — and 6,000 workers in Asia. Many of those hires will work at two new plants that are opening in China. This will be the most people Ford has hired in one year since 2000. 2014 will also be its busiest product year in Ford’s 111-year history, with 23 new vehicles being introduced around the world. Of those, 16 will be sold in the U.S., including a new Mustang sports car, Transit Connect van and Lincoln MKC small utility.

IT’S A SUITE DAY FOR HILTON INVESTORS
Its shares gained 7.5% to close at $21.50 Thursday after the hotelier raised $2.35 billion in the largest hotel IPO ever. Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. is the world’s largest hotel group with 665,667 rooms across 90 countries and territories. It operates luxury brands such as the Waldorf Astoria and Conrad Hotels & Resorts but has built much of its recent growth on franchise deals. Investor demand for IPOs has been strong recently with 218 IPOs in the U.S. this year, the most since 2000, according to research and investment firm Renaissance Capital. And Hilton’s offering trumped the $2.1 billion generated by Twitter’s IPO last month, as well as proceeds from offerings by its competitors.

HUD RELEASES FINAL RULE DEFINING QUALIFIED MORTGAGE
The Department of Housing and Urban Development on Wednesday released its final rule defining a “qualified mortgage” that is guaranteed or administered by HUD, effective Jan. 10, 2014. The rule will apply to all mortgages with case number assignments on or after that date. HUD proposed a QM definition aligned with the Ability-to-Repay criteria contained in the Truth-in-Lending Act as required by the Dodd-Frank Act and the agency’s mission to promote affordable mortgage financing options for underserved borrowers. The rule builds off of an existing QM rule that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized earlier this year. Under HUD’s QM definition, mortgage loans must require periodic payments without risky features; have terms that don’t exceed 30 years; be insured or guaranteed by FHA/HUD; and limit upfront points and fees to no more than 3% with adjustments to facilitate smaller loans, with certain exceptions.