From Crain’s Chicago Business | Motorola Mobility, Motorola’s cell phone unit, reportedly has ruled out moving its headquarters to downtown Chicago. The company, which will split from the emergency-radio business Jan. 4, would keep its headquarters at its existing campus in Libertyville if it chooses to stay in Illinois, says a person familiar with the search. Get the full story>>
Filed under: Real estate
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Dec. 29, 2010 at 1:10 p.m.
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Filed under: Cell phones, Chicago executives, Commercial real estate, Real estate, Telecommunications Motorola Mobility not moving HQ to Chicago
JPMorgan to buy majority stake in Aqua
From Crain’s Chicago Business | JPMorgan Asset Management has agreed to invest about $182 million in the apartments in the 82-story Aqua tower, the biggest local multifamily deal in more than three years.
Allstate sues BofA, Countrywide over losses
Allstate Corp. has sued Bank of America Corp. and the Countrywide Financial mortgage unit it acquired in 2008 regarding $700 million in residential mortgage-backed securities the insurer purchased, claiming Countrywide misrepresented the investments, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.
“Countrywide was singularly focused on increasing its market share, off-loading the risk onto Allstate and other institutional investors that purchased securities backed by pools of Countrywide’s mortgages,” Allstate said in its civil suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. Get the full story »
Oct. decline keeps local home prices at ‘02 levels
Prices of U.S. single-family homes fell almost double the expected pace in October, the fourth straight decline, data from a closely watched survey showed Tuesday, fresh evidence the housing market continues to struggle.
In the Chicago area, home prices fell 2 percent from September, bringing the one-year decline to 6.5 percent. Local home prices in October were in line with where they were in February. On a longer-term, historical basis, prices remain near the levels they were at in the summer of 2002.
Condo of ex-Blackhawk Ruutu back on market
By Bob Goldsborough | Elite Street | Former Chicago Blackhawks forward Tuomo Ruutu, now with the Carolina Hurricanes, has just placed his two-bedroom condominium unit in Lincoln Park back on the market for $499,000.
The Finland-born Ruutu, 27, played with the Blackhawks from 2003 until 2008, when he was traded to Carolina for Andrew Ladd. Get the full story »
Sandra Bullock tops Zillow poll of favored neighbor
Americans would most like to live next door to actress Sandra Bullock in 2011, but the cast of the reality show “Jersey Shore” made the most undesirable neighbors, according to a poll released on Tuesday.
Bullock, who has won huge audiences with her All-American, girl-next-door image, earned more than a quarter of the vote in the annual poll on the most desirable celebrity neighbors, conducted by online real estate marketplace Zillow.com. Get the full story »
Dec. 23, 2010 at 12:26 p.m.
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Filed under: Commercial real estate, International, Real estate British Consulate shopping for new Chicago digs
The British Consulate-General, which has leased two floors of the Wrigley Building for more than a decade, is shopping around for new offices. The consulate’s lease expires next month, and the Consul General Robert Chatterton Dickson said Thursday that they are “looking at options.”
“We definitely have more space than we need; so, the timing of our lease negotiation is good,” he said. Get the full story »
30-year mortgage rates end 5-week climb
Rates on fixed mortgages dipped after rising for five weeks in a row.
Still, they remain more than a half-point higher than last month and are at the highest level since late spring. Get the full story »
Uptick in new-home sales still not robust enough
More Americans purchased new homes in November, though not enough to signal better times are ahead for the battered housing industry.
Sales of new homes rose 5.5 percent last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 290,000 units, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. That’s less than half the rate that economists consider healthy. And the increase follows an October sales pace that nearly matched the lowest level in 47 years. Get the full story »
Fannie, Freddie split on late-mortgage data
Fannie Mae said serious delinquencies on single-family mortgages declined further in October from September, while Freddie Mac reported that such delinquencies turned up in November for a second straight month, after seeing declines since February.
While the number of U.S. households behind on their mortgage payments declined during the third quarter, the number of newly initiated foreclosures rose as banks continued to clear a backlog of delinquent loans. Get the full story »
Dec. 23, 2010 at 7:33 a.m.
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Filed under: Chicago executives, Personnel moves, Real estate Apple poaches director from CB Richard Ellis
From Property Week | Mark Simms, an associate director from CB Richard Ellis who joined CBRE in April from Cushman & Wakefield, will join computer giant Apple’s property team.
More falling from foreclosure relief program
More troubled homeowners are dropping out of the Obama administration’s main foreclosure-relief program, which has been widely criticized for failing to help more people keep their homes.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday that about 774,000 homeowners have dropped out as of last month. That’s about 54 percent of the more than 1.4 million people who applied. And it’s up from October, when approximately 756,000 had fallen out. Get the full story »
Chicago-area home sales plunge in November
Sales of existing homes in the Chicago area plunged more than 30 percent in November, hurt by difficult comparisons as buyers last year sought to capitalize on federal homebuyer tax cut programs. Get the full story »
Chicago deal shows Tishman Speyer going back to basics
Tishman Speyer Properties’ purchase of a new Chicago office tower is the latest sign that the firm is going back to the basics as it emerges from one of the most devastating commercial real-estate cycles in decades.
Its purchase of 353 N. Clark St. for $385 million, an estimated $55 million less than it cost to build, also exposes the fault lines as well as the opportunities for investors and owners as the market recovers. Get the full story »
Report: Pritzkers’ Hyatt Center sold for $625M
From Bloomberg | A source with knowledge of the transaction says the Pritzker family has sold Hyatt Center, a 48-story office tower in downtown Chicago, to closely held Irvine Co for $625 million.
