Builders abandon them, customers say, but firms say it is more complicated.
About 10 families in The Oaks development west of Boca Raton gathered at a neighbor's house last week to commiserate about the tainted Chinese drywall contained in most of their homes.
The homeowners have contacted their builder, Albanese-Popkin Group, hoping the company would pay to fix their properties or find them rental housing. But they say the builder has abandoned them - while at the same time marketing deeply discounted homes for sale in the upscale community along Clint Moore Road.
Albanese-Popkin says it is pursuing legal action against subcontractors and suppliers and seeking coverage from insurance carriers. The company also notes that federal agencies have not yet established a protocol for repairing homes with Chinese drywall.
The stalemate over the problem drywall is common across Florida, where as many as 36,000 homes could be affected. Homeowners want answers and are filing lawsuits, while builders insist their hands are tied as state and federal officials determine how to fix the homes and whether the drywall poses any health risk.
"There are thousands of people out there begging their builders to help them," said Allison Grant, a Boca Raton attorney who is representing three homeowners in The Oaks and more than 200 statewide.
If builders aren't yet able to fix the homes, they should pay for temporary housing or allow homeowners to live in unsold units, she said. They also can help residents obtain mortgage relief on loans the builders originated.
"Just do something," Grant said.
Kevin Rosen and his wife and two small children moved out of their house at The Oaks this summer, shortly after discovering it had the defective wallboard.
Rosen continues to pay his mortgage and maintenance fees, and he says Albanese-Popkin has not responded to his requests for help. He filed a lawsuit seeking compensation for fixing the four-bedroom house he bought for more than $1 million in 2006.
"Where's the good faith?" said Rosen, 39. "They didn't even organize a meeting in the neighborhood. They have not taken the initiative to help homeowners resolve the problem. The people here are basically on their own."
Albanese-Popkin, a partnership of Leonard Albanese and Edward Popkin, says it has spent three decades building custom estate homes in South Florida and Colorado. In response to The Oaks residents, the company issued a statement, which said, "This is a terrible situation for everyone who is caught up in it. We wish we could do more and had the answers that homeowners want. Given the circumstances, we are taking all the steps we can."
Some industry observers worry that builders agreeing to fix homes with problem drywall immediately could be held liable if the repairs don't work or if they aren't consistent with government guidelines that may come out.
But homeowners say builders are using the lack of government guidelines as an excuse to get out of having to pay millions of dollars for repairs.
Sunrise-based GL Homes and Lennar Corp. of Miami have agreed to fix homes at no cost to the homeowners. The builders are ripping out the drywall and rebuilding homes from the studs out - a method endorsed by scientists who spoke at a state Chinese drywall symposium in Tampa last week.
"We just can't wait" for the government to issue a protocol, said Heather Keith, a lawyer for GL who attended the symposium.
Large volume builders have the resources to more easily help homeowners, said Edie Ousley, spokeswoman for the Florida Home Builders Association.
Lennar, for instance, told federal regulators this summer it set aside roughly $40 million to repair 400 homes with Chinese drywall. That works out to about $100,000 per home.
Ousley said many smaller builders don't have that kind of money and would be forced out of business if they had to fix homes.
"They're just financially unable to do so," she said.
But Rosen's Coral Gables lawyer, Ervin A. Gonzalez, doesn't buy it.
Generally speaking, he said, smaller builders typically set up and fund corporations to build houses. They take the profits as salaries and give bonuses to shareholders, ultimately depleting the corporations of any money that could go to help homeowners repair defective homes.
"It's not illegal," Gonzalez said, "but it sure smells to high heaven."
The housing market welcomed a bigger share of first-time buyers and single women this past year, while a majority of sellers resorted to dialing down prices to get their homes sold, a new homebuyer survey shows.
First-time buyers accounted for a record 47 percent of home sales between July 2008 and June this year, up from 41 percent in the prior-year period, according to the survey conducted by the National Association of Realtors.
The annual survey gleans details on everything from how buyers came up with down payments to how long it took sellers to unload their homes. The latest results were derived from more than 9,000 responses, the trade association said.
Home sales and prices have shown some signs of stabilizing this year, and the survey results affirm the market continued to favor buyers, particularly first-timers.
"Tax incentives, record high affordability conditions and a pent-up demand brought a record share of first-time home buyers into the market," said Paul Bishop, the trade association's vice president of research.
First-time homebuyers this year have been able to take advantage of a tax credit of up to $8,000 meant to entice new homebuyers to enter the market.
Congress extended the tax incentive through next June, as long as the buyer signs a binding contract by the end of April. The program also was expanded to include a $6,500 credit for existing homeowners who buy a new place after living in their current residence for at least five years.
First-time buyers had a median age of 30 and reported a median income of $61,600, the survey shows. The typical first-time buyer paid $156,000 for their home, about $9,000 less than in the Realtors' 2008 survey.
Repeat buyers were typically a few years older, 48, and earned a bit more than first-timers: $88,100. They also said they planned to stay in the home for 12 years.
Buyers generally took 12 weeks to search for a home, two weeks longer than last year. They also generally looked at 12 homes, up from 10.
Single women made up a slightly bigger share of homebuyers, accounting for 21 percent of buyers. That's a 1 percent increase from the prior-year survey. Single men accounted for 10 percent of buyers. But married couples continued to make up the majority of buyers at 60 percent, the survey showed.
Whites continued to dominate among homebuyers, representing 85 percent of buyers. That trend was slightly higher than in the 2008 survey.
The median down payment homebuyers made was 8 percent.
More than 61 percent of buyers tapped their savings to come up with the down payment, while 22 percent received a gift from a friend or relative.
Sellers had to go the extra mile to sell their homes, with 52 percent offering incentives like paying for closing costs. They also lowered prices.
The typical home sold for 95 percent of the original listing price, the survey shows.
Still, many sellers came out ahead. The median amount over the price sellers originally paid for their home was $36,000.
Millions of additional people may be able to take advantage of the new and improved first-time home-buyer tax credit now, and it's not just for first-time home buyers anymore. You may qualify.
President Obama signed legislation Friday to extend unemployment benefits to American workers. The law also includes provisions that vastly expand the number of people eligible for home-buyer credits by boosting the income eligibility limits, giving buyers more time, creating a $6,500 credit for longtime homeowners and launching more-accommodating rules for members of the military. Here are the details.
The $8,000 credit
If you were locked out of the first-time home-buyer credit in the past simply because you earned too much, there's good news.
Now you can qualify for the full $8,000 first-time home-buyer credit with a single income of up to $125,000 and married income of up to $225,000. Those who earn more will be phased out.
The credit ends completely once single income exceeds $145,000 and married income exceeds $245,000. Still, that's a big boost from the previous law that shut off the credit for singles earning more than $95,000 and married couples who earned more than $170,000. Other eligibility rules
* You must not have owned another home for at least the previous three years.
* You must buy a home (or have a binding contract to buy) by April 30, 2010. Under the new law, if the sale doesn't close on time, you can still get the credit as long as you've got a binding contract on the ending date, said Jackie Perlman, tax analyst with the Tax Institute at H&R Block in Kansas City.
* You must be older than 18 and not claimed as a dependent by any other taxpayer.
* The property you purchase cannot have been acquired from a relative.
* You must attach a copy of your settlement statement with your tax return to claim the credit.
* Most buyers also must continue to own this new home for at least three years. If they sell in less time, the government will demand that they pay the credit back, said Clint Stretch, director of tax policy with Deloitte Tax.
Special rules for military
The government will not require repayment of the credit if you are a member of the military and had to sell or stop using the home as a residence because of extended duty, however.
In addition, those serving outside of the U.S. during any part of 2009 or early 2010 will get an additional year to claim the credit. In other words, the credit ends for most people on April 30, 2010, but it lasts until April 30, 2011, for active-duty service members working overseas.
The $6,500 credit
The new law carves out an additional credit for current homeowners.
If you have owned and lived in a home for at least five consecutive years of the last eight years, you could qualify for a $6,500 tax credit, if you buy a new home between now and April 30.
The "five-of-eight" requirement means that this credit could accommodate people who lost their homes in the last year or two to foreclosure or even sold a house and didn't immediately replace it, said John. W. Roth, senior tax analyst with CCH Inc., a Riverwoods, Ill., publisher of tax information.
Would you have to sell your residence for it to qualify for the $6,500 credit, if you wanted to buy a new one? Not necessarily, Roth said. The home you purchase must become your principal residence, so you would have to move there. But nothing in the law says you cannot keep your existing residence as a second home or rental, he said.
If you do choose to sell your existing residence, you need to pay close attention to how much you earn on that sale, Stretch said. That's because taxable profits from the sale of your residence will be added to your other earnings to determine whether your adjusted gross income exceeds the allowable thresholds.
This credit also phases out for singles earning more than $125,000 and married couples earning more than $225,000.
On the bright side, some profits from the sale of a personal residence don't count. That's because taxpayers are allowed to exclude up to $250,000 per person or $500,000 per couple in profits on the sale of their personal residence from tax, if they lived in that home for two of the last five years, Stretch said. Only profits exceeding those excluded amounts would be included in income, he noted.
Getting muddled? Let's look at an example to clarify.
John and Sue Smith own a home that they bought for $100,000 in 1965. They're now retired and want to scale back, selling that home, which is now worth $750,000, and buying a smaller home with the help of the new $6,500 credit.
Their net profit on this sale would be $650,000, but they can exclude $500,000 of that gain from tax, based on existing law. They will have to add the remaining $150,000 capital gain to their adjusted gross income to determine whether they can qualify for the new credit.
If all of their other income adds up to less than $75,000, they have no worries because the $150,000 and $75,000 add up to $225,000 -- the beginning of the credit's phase-out range for married couples. If they earn more, however, they begin to lose their ability to take the credit.
There are other arcane rules relating to profits earned on the sale of a home, so those with substantial profits may want to consult a tax professional before banking on the credit.
"It's really confusing," Roth allowed. "It's as if they took the old law and threw it in a Mixmaster. Some things still apply; others don't. The time frames are all new. This is going to keep a lot of tax accountants in business for a long time."
The number of homeowners on the brink of losing their homes dipped in October, the third straight monthly decline, as foreclosure prevention programs helped more borrowers.
But foreclosure filings are still up 19 percent from a year ago, RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday, and rising job losses continue to threaten the stabilizing trend.
More than 332,000 households, or one in every 385 homes, received a foreclosure-related notice in October, such as a notice of default or trustee's sale. That's down 3 percent from September.
Banks repossessed more than 77,000 homes last month, down from nearly 88,000 homes in September.
New state programs, like one launched in Nevada in July, that require mediation before banks can seize a property have helped stem foreclosure activity, said Rick Sharga, senior vice president at RealtyTrac.
Also, anecdotally, lenders are delaying foreclosure as they evaluate which borrowers might qualify for the federal loan modification program, he said.
"That's the reason there's been a buildup of homes that are seriously delinquent but not foreclosed," he said.
Despite Nevada's legislative efforts to slow foreclosures, the state still clocked in the nation's highest foreclosure rate for the 34th month in a row, followed by California, Florida, Arizona and Idaho. Rounding out the top 10 were Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, Maryland and Utah.
Among cities, Las Vegas had the highest rate, the report showed. One in 68 homes there received a foreclosure filing in October, more than five times the national average. Seven of the top ten metros were in California, led by Vallejo and Modesto at No. 2 and 3.
After three years of declines, home prices reversed course in June and have been rapidly climbing month-over-month. This will rebuild home equity and reduce the number of borrowers that owe more than their homes are worth.
Still, foreclosures remain near record highs and the mortgage industry is still struggling to manage the onslaught. The government has had to push many lenders to participate in the Obama administration's loan modification plan.
The Treasury Department said Tuesday that more than 650,000 borrowers, or 20 percent of those eligible, had signed up for temporary trial plans lasting up to five months. But since the beginning of September, only about 1,700 modifications had been made permanent. The Treasury Department expects to release updated data later this month.
Congress last week also extended and expanded a key federal tax credit for homebuyers that has been credited for boosting home sales recently.
Buyers who have owned their current homes for at least five years are eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500, while first-time homebuyers - or anyone who hasn't owned a home in the last three years - would still get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010, and close by June 30.
"Anything that stimulates buying activity," Sharga said, "will go a long way to mediate the foreclosure problem."
Just one in 20 Americans say they plan to buy a home within the next year, and they're most likely to be 34 years old or younger and living in the South or West, according to a survey released Wednesday.
Roughly a quarter of potential buyers said the No. 1 reason they would buy now is because prices appear to have bottomed out. That reason topped bargain-priced foreclosures, worries about rising interest rates and a wide selection of homes.
The survey, conducted for Move.com, a real estate listings site, reveals how Americans are responding to a nascent and fragile housing recovery after three years of staggering price declines. The percentage of buyers thinking of jumping into the market was down slightly from a March survey, but up about 1 point from a poll in June.
Home prices rebounded this summer at an annualized pace of almost 7 percent, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index. But with high unemployment and foreclosures clouding the picture, economists debate whether prices will dip again.
Recent housing figures and homebuilder earnings support a stabilizing housing market, and concerns about the expiration of federal homebuyer tax credit are moot after Congress last week extended and expanded the credit
Buyers who have owned in their current homes for at least five years are eligible for tax credits of up to $6,500, while first-time homebuyers - or anyone who hasn't owned a home in the last three years - would still get up to $8,000. To qualify, buyers have to sign a purchase agreement by April 30, 2010, and close by June 30.
The survey was conducted before the credit extension.
Those surveyed widely favored federal policies that kept interest rates low and helped troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure over those that helped first-time homebuyers purchase a home. And, overall, 48 percent of those polled didn't think the government was doing enough to stabilize the housing market, whereas 42 percent thought it was.
Forty-five percent of Americans worry that they or someone they know will face foreclosure in the next year. And almost 30 percent of those with a mortgage have contacted their lender in the past year to reduce their payments. One of the survey participants, Joe Handley of Harrington, Del., called his lender last December to consolidate a second mortgage and cut his interest rate from 6.75 percent to 5.25 percent.
"We wanted to build up our savings for emergencies," the 37-year-old said.
His timing was prescient. In July, Handley, who works in the information technology department for the State of Delaware, took a pay cut and the $400 monthly savings from the new loan has helped cushion the blow.
Almost a quarter of Americans who refinanced their mortgages have used the savings for living expenses or paying down debt, the survey found. Less than 9 percent are putting the savings toward investment or retirement.
The telephone poll, which included about two-thirds homeowners and one-third renters, was conducted in October by market research firm GfK. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points
Click Here to view and print a one page PDF that describes the changes
From the Associated Press: Dave Dieter/Huntsville TimesThe Senate on Wednesday passed legislation to extend the $8,000 home buyer tax credit to May 1, 2010, for first-time buyers and add a $6,500 tax credit for repeat buyers if they've lived in their home for five of the past eight years. Home prices are capped at $800,000.
The legislation was included in a bill to extend unemployment benefits and is expected to be passed by the House today or tomorrow. President Obama is expected to sign the legislation when it's sent to his desk.
Under the bill, income limits are expanded to $125,000 for individuals and $225,000 for joint filers. Individuals with incomes up to $145,000 and joint filers with incomes up to $245,000 qualify for reduced credits.
Households who have binding contracts in place by April 30 will be allowed an additional 60 days to complete their transaction. The deadline for members of the military serving out the U.S. for at least 90 days between Jan. 1, 2009, and May 1, 2010, has been extended one year.
Taxpayers can claim the credit on their federal income tax returns. If the credit exceeds their tax bill, the government will issue a check. Taxpayers will be able to claim the credit on their 2009 income tax return for purchases made in 2010.
Here is what is most clear after last week's Sun Sentinel Town Hall Meeting on Condos & HOAs: Many owners and board members from community associations across South Florida are frustrated and fearful about finances, foreclosures and other festering issues.
And there is no denying that there is a need for solutions, and for help from lawmakers.
Approximately 250 people from Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties attended the Oct. 29 event sponsored by the Sun Sentinel and hosted by Nova Southeastern University in Davie. On. 27, the newspaper also held a Condos & HOAs online chat, which drew nearly 300 participants who posted about 180 questions.
Several key questions emerged over and over again. Many who participated in the chat and town hall wanted to know what potential reforms lawmakers plan to consider when they reconvene next year.
"We are caught in a terrible situation," said Diana Correll, of Deerfield Beach, whose sentiments were typical of many with foreclosure concerns. "A large number of properties in condo and homeowners associations have been taken over by banks, residents are just picking up and leaving their properties along with their commitments, and [there is the] added problem of people who continue to live in their properties while not paying maintenance fees.
"For answers, we turned to a panel of local experts: Jan Bergemann, president of Cyber Citizens for Justice; Donna D. Berger, executive director of Community Advocacy Network (CAN) and managing partner at Katzman Garfinkel Rosenbaum; Gary A. Poliakoff, attorney with Becker & Poliakoff P.A. and professor at Nova Southeastern University's law school; William Raphan, supervisor of the state Office of the Condominium Ombudsman in Fort Lauderdale; and State Rep. Julio Robaina, R-Miami.
What are the insurance requirements for condo owners?
Many voiced concerns about complex and confusing condo and HOA laws and insurance requirements.
Here is what you need to know, says Raphan: Unit owners are required to carry homeowners insurance with property loss assessment coverage of no less than $2,000 per occurrence, and the association must have an additional named insured and loss payee. The association requires proof of a currently effective hazard and liability policy from each owner, and may purchase a policy on behalf of the owner if he or she does not provide a valid certificate of insurance.
Unfortunately, the statutes suggest associations may purchase an insurance policy on behalf of a noncompliant owner, but do not say they must do so, leaving association boards -- and their attorneys -- to figure out what to do for themselves.
Who will fix foreclosure banking flaws?
Robaina promised, along with other lawmakers in the audience, to clean up this statute problem and others, including laws related to foreclosure processes. Many condo owners and homeowners complain that banks are allowed to forestall foreclosures and skip paying their share of maintenance fees.
Robaina said lawmakers are aware of widespread problems, and they are among potential reforms to look out for next legislative session. No details yet of what can be done, but possibilities include requiring banks to pay fees sooner than the 12 to 18 months it typically takes now to complete a foreclosure.
With values dropping, sales declining and credit scarce, it was not a good year to sell commercial real estate in South Florida.
Deals were getting done, but nowhere near the level of five or six years ago when buyers were plentiful and prices steadily climbed.
And things are likely to get worse as the economic crisis deepens.
Unemployment is growing, retailers are facing the worst holiday season in years, and the credit market remains a mess. With billions in short-term loans coming due, numerous commercial property owners across South Florida could be facing foreclosure.
Yet a wave of foreclosure could ultimately be the salvation of the industry as cut-rate properties valued on their income - rather than on investors' optimistic expectations - hit the market.
"You are starting to see [commercial loans go in default] because owners cannot pay their loans," said Steven Beauchamp, president of Mangrove Advisory Group.
"The first half of 2009 will be similar to the last half of 2008, with very little activity in commercial real estate," said Gabriel Navarro, a principal with MMG Equity Partners in Miami. Navarro, along with partners Marcel Navarro and Martin Pico, buys, manages and develops commercial properties throughout South Florida.
"There is still a gap between sellers' expectations of value and what buyers are willing to pay. The gap may be increasing, as many buyers are of the opinion that what you buy today will be less tomorrow."
Sales of South Florida commercial properties plummeted in the first nine months of the year.
In Miami-Dade County, sales declined 62 percent to $1.68 billion during the period from January to September, compared with the same period a year ago, according to Real Capital Analytics.
Commercial sales in Broward County fell 80 percent to $747 million, and in Palm Beach County, they declined 53 percent to $932 million.
Cash deals
Unlike in the past, most recent large acquisitions didn't include financing but were cash deals. Most of the buying was done by institutional investors with deep pockets such as pension funds and life insurers.
During the hot real estate market of the early- and mid-decade, many buyers were non-institutional investor groups that often borrowed as much as 95 percent of the property's value.
Real estate experts said there are plenty of private equity funds with money to invest, but the potential buyers don't like the prices.
Those short-term buyers want to earn at least a 20 percent profit when they sell in a few years, and to achieve that target, they need to buy low, said Stephen Nostrand, executive vice president in the investment sales division of Colliers Abood Wood-Fay in Coral Gables.
Beauchamp said investors are waiting on the sidelines for lenders to take title to distressed commercial properties.
They speculate that lenders - and possibly government agencies - will offer greater discounts because they will be more eager to unload the troubled assets.
That theory could prove true.
In 1989, Congress created the Resolution Trust Corp. to auction shopping centers, offices and condos taken back by savings and loans that later became insolvent.
Many of those assets were bundled and sold to investors at large discounts. The total bill to taxpayers was $87 billion, according to former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan. Many deals in 2009 will involve private owners of struggling shopping centers, office buildings and warehouses with rising vacancy rates and shrinking income, predicted real estate broker Neil Merin, with NAI/Merin Hunter Codman in West Palm Beach.
"In the next three to six months, we will see a lot of foreclosure sales," he said. "But it won't be like during the savings and loans crisis in the 1980s and 1990s, when 100 percent of the sales were foreclosures."
Michael Stein, managing director of the Aztec Group in Coconut Grove, said lenders are increasingly seeking advice from his firm on how best to dispose of poorly performing properties with delinquent mortgages or loans that are worth a lot more than the depreciating collateral.
"We went to them looking for business a year ago, but they told us they didn't have any nonperforming loans," he said. "Now, we are getting calls from them requesting our services."
J. Kingsley Greenland, president and chief executive officer of The Debt Exchange based in Boston, said lenders in South Florida are quietly selling loans - some that are current, others that are nonperforming - to investors.
Greenland, whose firm specializes in finding buyers for bad loans, said most of the troubled loans in South Florida are backed by properties whose owners loaded them up with debt during the run-up in prices over the last five years. He said some non-performing loans that have land as collateral are selling for 40 cents on the dollar.
"Banks are trying to get the problem behind them to go back to lending," said Greenland, who declined to name lenders using his services to sell non-performing notes.
Some of the most prominent sales in 2009 are expected to involve properties whose owners have loans about to come due. Their options will be limited. In many cases the value of their properties have declined, and lenders willing to make loans are demanding that owners increase their equity in the building and boost their cash reserves.
Some real estate experts say it's too early to forecast the direction the commercial real estate market will take next year. When President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January, he could launch policy changes that might significantly impact the market, said real estate broker Richard Matricaria, vice president of investments at Marcus & Millichap in Fort Lauderdale.
For example, Obama is proposing to boost taxes on capital gains - the profit earned when an asset is sold - from 15 percent to at least 20 percent. Hoping to cash in before the tax rate increases, long-term owners might be motivated to sell properties that have appreciated significantly.
"If the capital gains tax is to go into effect in 2010, sellers may be looking to cash out next year," Matricaria said.
Obama is also proposing an additional stimulus package that could inject billions of additional dollars into the economy.
If the strategy is successful, retailers, restaurants and distribution companies might need more space. That would boost demand for shopping centers, warehouses and other commercial properties and help increase sales of those properties.
Falling values
For now, however, rising vacancies and falling rent rates are depressing the value of income-producing properties in South Florida.
Values could fall between 5 percent and 20 percent in the next 18 months, according to William Hemingway, co-managing director of real estate consultancy Integra Realty Resources in Miami.
Nationally, the Moody's/REAL Commercial Property Price Indices reported that commercial properties lost 11.2 percent in value in August compared with the same month in 2007.
Capitalization rates - a key valuation measure based on the ratio between cash flow and a rental property's market value - are on the rise. The higher the cap rate, the lower the price of the property.
But because properties are generating less revenue, cap rates are increasing from 0.5 percent to 2 percent, reaching at least 7 percent in some Class A properties and more than 8 percent in less stellar properties, Hemingway said.
Values are likely to continue to drop as the region's economy shrinks and unemployment rises. In Miami-Dade County, unemployment increased to 6.1 percent in September, up from 3.9 percent in September 2007. The jobless rate in Broward County hit 6 percent, up from 4.1 percent the year before. And in Palm Beach County, it rose to 7.3 percent, up from 5 percent, according to the Florida Agency for Workforce Innovation.
As consumers cut back on spending, retailers and service providers are downsizing or closing shop.
As a result, office space vacancies in South Florida reached 11.4 percent in the third quarter of 2008, up from 10.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, according to CoStar Group, a real estate research firm.
Retail vacancies jumped to 4.7 percent, up from 4.2 percent. Industrial vacancies jumped to 7.4 percent, up from 6.1 percent.
With rental rates flat, landlords are increasingly having to dangle upgrades or offer one or two months of free rent to attract or retain tenants.
Those expenses eat into operating income, said Doron Valero, managing partner of Global Fund Investments in Miami Beach.
"Why would you want to buy a property when it requires a lot of cash at a time when rents are not growing but going the other way?" he asked.
Lenders know rents are soft and take that into account when underwriting commercial loans, he said.
Until recently, lenders would look at the rent rates charged by a landlord and lend money based on the net operating income. Now, lenders compared a building's rental rates with the prevailing rates.
"If the rent at your shopping center is $30 per square foot but the retail center across the street charges $25 per square foot, banks will go with the lower rent because they know you will have to lower your rent to attract new tenants when your current tenants move out," he said.
As a result, lenders are willing to finance between 50 percent to 65 percent of the market value of a commercial property, down from 85 percent more than a year ago.
Dealmaking will remain slow until financing loosens up.
"There is not much trading of Class B and C properties because it is very hard to get financing," said real estate broker Jay Caplin, who leads Cushman & Wakefield's Capital Markets Group in Miami. "Lenders are being selective and lending to better quality properties."
Navarro, whose family owns Navarro Pharmacies, said he had a hard time securing financing to buy a Class B shopping center for $22.5 million last month. Navarro obtained a short-term, $10 million loan to acquire a 94,816-square-foot shopping center in western Miami-Dade County, he said.
"Securing financing was difficult, to say the least, and securing attractive financing was nearly impossible," he said. "We [ended up] securing a short-term bridge loan with Wachovia for a portion of the purchase price to close and will work on placing longer-term debt on the property in the next 30 to 60 days."
Navarro is confident he will be able to refinance the shopping center with a long-term loan, because he already has 50 percent equity on the property.
Equity Residential, the largest publicly traded owner of apartments in the U.S., raised its forecast for property sales this year to $900 million as investor demand increased.
Nationwide sales of rental apartments climbed 12 percent in the third quarter from the previous three months to $3.6 billion, according to research firm Real Capital Analytics. Scarce credit and falling property values slowed the pace of deals beginning in 2008. Equity Residential's long-standing strategy is to exit so-called second-tier markets and buy in cities including New York, Los Angeles and Washington.
The company began 2009 anticipating $700 million in property sales, Marty McKenna, a spokesman for the Chicago-based REIT, said in an interview today. It later boosted that forecast to $800 million, he said.
Proceeds "strongly position us to take advantage of any future opportunities to add high-quality properties to our portfolio," Equity Residential Chief Executive Officer David Neithercut in a statement yesterday announcing quarterly results.
Billionaire investor Sam Zell established Equity Residential in 1969 and owns about 1 percent of the shares, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Pending acquisitions include a 326-unit apartment building in Pentagon City outside Washington for $99 million. Equity Residential may complete the deal as early as tomorrow, Neithercut said.
The REIT sold 24 properties totaling 4,620 apartments in the third quarter for an aggregate value of $381.1 million, the company said in a statement. It sold 47 properties this year for a total of $734.5 million.
Where the Deals Are
The sales were in suburban Denver, Vermont, Texas and Atlanta, according to McKenna.
The company is close to fully exiting markets in Texas and North Carolina, Chief Financial Officer Mark Parrell said in a conference call today.
The landlord has "no plans" to start new developments, Neithercut said. The REIT will likely report declining revenue from apartment leases into next year, he said.New lease rates are flat in New York and San Diego, and still falling in Los Angeles, Seattle and Phoenix, the company said.
The shares gained $1.50, or 5.4 percent, to $29.06 today in New York Stock Exchange composite trading
Chris Rokos, a secretive British hedge fund executive, has paid $8.17 million for a condo-hotel unit in W South Beach.
Rokos, a senior partner in the London-based investment firm Brevan Howard Asset Management, bought penthouse No. 5 in the 2201 Collins Ave. building. His acquisition of the 6,466-square-foot unit is the second-most expensive condo deal in Miami Beach in 2009, according to Miami-Dade records.
New York-based Alex Birkenstock's $9.9 million purchase of a penthouse at Continuum South Beach in May is the top deal in Miami Beach this year.
Calls to Rokos, 38, at Brevan Howard's London headquarters were not returned. Rokos' assistant did not respond to an e-mail.
Rokos, who ranked No. 600 in a British newspaper's list of the wealthiest people in England and Ireland, closed on the all-cash purchase on Oct. 12. The sale was not recorded by Miami-Dade County until last week. The penthouse includes three bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms, three outdoor terraces and a pool, according to the W South Beach Web site.
The London native bought the unit from W South Beach development partnership 2201 Collins Fee, a company led by David Edelstein. W South Beach sales director Cathy Strafaci declined to comment on the sale.
Rokos is the second high-profile buyer of a W South Beach penthouse since July. Professional basketball star Amar'e Stoudemire paid $5.58 million for the 4,841-square-foot penthouse No. 3 on July 10. Stoudemire also paid cash.
The 312-room hotel portion of W South Beach opened July 2. Closings on the 409 residential units began earlier this year. The units were listed from $800,000 to $15 million.
At the time of the Stoudemire deal, about 80 percent of the condo-hotel units were under contract. About 40 units have closed, according to broker Kevin Tomlinson of Esslinger Wooten Maxwell, although only 33 are listed in Miami-Dade County property records.
"It is a struggle for any developer to get any buyer to close," said Tomlinson, who was not involved in the Rokos deal. "It is especially hard for somebody with a project that is not financeable," Tomlinson said. Lenders have avoided funding mortgages for properties such as condo-hotels since the onset of the financial crisis and recession.
Project developer Edelstein, principal of Tristar Capital, said in an e-mail that new unit contracts signed in the last two weeks total more than $20 million. Tristar co-owns the hotel with RFR Realty. Edelstein said deals expected to close in the next few weeks total more than $30 million.
"We have experienced a substantial increase in global demand for our units. ... We are projecting more than $100 million in closings by year end," Edelstein said.
OVERSEAS BUYERS
Tomlinson was not surprised the W South Beach sales staff found a buyer in the United Kingdom. Helped by a weak dollar, much of the interest in Miami Beach condos is coming from Europe, he said. The U.S. dollar has declined 7.1 percent against the euro since the beginning of the year, according to Lydian Private Bank.
Developers of condo projects north of Fifth Street are losing potential international buyers to competing projects south of Fifth, Tomlinson said. Of the 13 most expensive condo sales in Miami Beach this year, 11 were at Apogee South Beach at 800 S. Pointe Drive.
"These buyers typically want to go to the south of Fifth neighborhood, which is doing very well," he said. "With Apogee, the minimum [asking price] is $3.5 million. That exclusivity attracts the creme de la creme. At Continuum, the minimum buy-in is $650,000."
CONDO-HOTEL TREND
Condo-hotel projects became popular after the 9/11 terror attacks when financing for conventional hotels dried up. Condo-hotel developers found they could finance construction with deposits from unit buyers.
Condo-hotels developed a bad reputation as would-be unit buyers struggled to find financing during the financial crisis, the real estate downturn depressed prices of all residential properties, and a decline in tourism cut into hotel revenues.Lawsuits against condo-hotel developers spiked as many buyers sought to recover deposits.
"These condo-hotels were touted as a great new form of ownership and investment vehicle," Tomlinson said. "A lot of people bought these under the assumption that they would be great investments and could be financed. Now the proof is beginning to be seen in the pudding, and all of that is changing."
Condo-hotels have become an afterthought in a tight lending environment, Tomlinson said. A loosening of the capital markets would not be enough to persuade banks to consider condo-hotel lending.
"Banks don't even want to finance a condo, let alone a condo-hotel," he said. "I don't see it changing with an opening of the credit markets."
Typically, buyers of condo-hotel properties sign a management deal to put the unit into a rental pool. During the condo boom earlier this decade, condo-hotel managers would require such agreements. But with a dwindling group of prospective condo-hotel buyers, managers have become more flexible.
Rokos could choose to hire an outside broker to rent the unit rather use W's rental program. Starwood Hotels manages the condo-hotel program at W South Beach.
Eric Kalis can be reached at (305) 347-6651. 2201 Collins Ave. photo by A.M. Holt October 29, 2009By: Eric Kalis 2201 Collins Ave.
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