National market report

Residential and commercial news briefs from around the U.S.<br>


The Chicago lakefront

Chicago

Home prices in the greater Chicago region dropped to their lowest point since the market peak, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index, which was reported in the Chicago Sun-Times last month. Prices dropped 1.8 percent month-over-month and 3.1 percent year-over-year, the most recent report showed, marking the third month in a row that prices reached a post-peak low. But Case-Shiller isn’t the only one with bad news for Chicago housing. The Sun-Times also cited data from the Illinois Association of Realtors, showing that the median sales price for a home in the Chicago area dropped to $165,750 in February. That marked a 41.8 percent decline from the market high in July 2006, and the lowest level seen since February 2000.

Boston

A 6.6-acre mixed-use complex has resumed development on Boston’s South End, according to the Boston Globe. The project, launched jointly by the Newton-based real estate firm National Development and Boston Herald owner Pat Purcell in 2007, stalled midway through its planning stages amid the recession. When complete, the complex is expected to include residential units, as well as numerous big-box retailers. TJX Cos., the company that runs HomeGoods, Marshalls and T.J. Maxx, is said to be interested in taking retail space in the development, the Globe reported. Whole Foods had been considering taking space at the project, but opted not to. It was not immediately clear when the developer expects to complete the project.

Miami

alternate text
MLB shortstop Alex Cora sold his home in Miami’s suburbs.

Affordable housing builder Carlisle Development Group topped off its latest creation — the Beacon — in Miami’s Overtown neighborhood last month. The 13-story, $25 million housing complex contains 90 one-, two- and three-bedroom units, which will be designated for “very low- to low-income households,” the developers said in a news release. The building will also have a library, computer lab and exercise room, plus a slew of program offerings for residents, like literacy, nutrition and job-training classes, and financial counseling. Urgent Inc., a nonprofit education program, will take 3,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. Construction is slated for completion in the fall.

Major League Baseball star Alex Cora has sold his home in the Miami suburb of Pinecrest for $1.82 million, according to the Los Angeles Times. The shortstop played for the University of Miami and is currently on the Washington Nationals team. Cora’s 7290 SW 104th Street home, which he bought in early 2008, includes both marble and bamboo floors, a pool and built-in insect repellent systems. Corey Schwartz of RE/MAX Advance Realty marketed the 5,770-square-foot house.

Philadelphia

Local housing advocates in West Philadelphia protested the sale of more than 600 homes in foreclosure last month in an effort to delay the auctions until federal assistance money comes through, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. The protest aimed to give homeowners time to apply for the $105.8 million in foreclosure relief funds allocated to Pennsylvania in the national Emergency Homeowners Loan Program. The funds, which are being granted to property owners who fall into foreclosure after losing 15 percent or more of their income due to unemployment or reduced work, are just now becoming available. But advocates say that area homeowners haven’t been given enough time to apply for the grants and shouldn’t lose their homes as a result.

San Francisco

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

San Francisco may be known for its pricey real estate and tight housing market, but recent housing data seems to be upending that reputation, according to the Bay Citizen, a nonprofit local publication. The city had 30,000 empty homes last year, according to recent census data, marking an 8.3 percent vacancy rate. That rate is the highest of any county in the Bay Area, which one business columnist said she finds surprising. “I have to wonder why there are not fewer vacant units considering the high demand and seemingly tight supply,” the columnist wrote. “Who are these property owners holding the keys to empty homes?”

Palm Beach

alternate text
102 Canterbury Lane in Palm Beach

The purchase of a $26.4 million oceanfront home early last month marks the priciest sale in Palm Beach since 2008, according to a warranty deed obtained by the Palm Beach Post. The 13,864-square-foot house, which is located at 102 Canterbury Lane, had been listed for $35 million. Corcoran’s Paulette Koch represented the buyer, Parkview Associates. The seller was a corporation called House of Canterbury, based in Calgary, Canada.

New Orleans

A coalition of non- and for-profit developers and housing groups released a proposal last month to use $62 million in federal funds to help current New Orleans-area renters buy homes, according to Louisiana Weekly. The group, known as the Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance, said that the funds, allocated to the state as part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Disaster Community Development Block Grant, are currently going either unused or underutilized. The proposal still needs approval from local officials.

Washington, D.C.

Construction began last month on CityCenterDC, a $700 million mixed-use complex in the nation’s capital, according to Home Design Network. The development will include 216 condominium units, 185,000 square feet of retail space and 520,000 square feet of offices. Developers Hines and Archstone also plan to build a 350-room hotel during the second phase of construction on the four-and-a-half-block parcel. The project, which will include 1,555 below-ground parking spaces, is slated to be finished late next year.

Los Angeles

A Los Angeles City Council member has spoken out against a $2 billion plan to raze a housing community in Boyle Heights, an Eastside neighborhood of the city, according to the Los Angeles Times. The plan would displace an estimated 6,000 residents to make way for a multipurpose complex that would include shops, offices and homes. City Council member Jose Huizar, who is leading the opposition to the plan, claims that it would be detrimental to the neighborhood’s stability. “The bottom line … is that it would dismantle an existing community that has deep roots, generations of families,” Huizar’s spokesperson told the newspaper. Proponents of the development, however, say that the project would provide numerous affordable housing options, a boon to Boyle Heights, which is a lower-income neighborhood.

Compiled by Amy Tennery