(Reuters) – Growth in China’s real estate investment eased to 8.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier as developers made clearing inventory their priority amid a housing glut.
Filed under: Buying, Financing, Refinancing ZillowThe weekly mortgage rate chart illustrates the average 30-year fixed interest rate in six-hour intervals. By Lauren Braun Mortgage rates for 30-year fixed loans rose this week, with the current rate borrowers were quoted on Zillow Mortgages at 3.58 percent, up 3 basis points from this time last week. The 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose throughout the week before dipping to the current rate on
Italian publisher RCS MediaGroup faced calls for shareholders to back alternative boardroom candidates, having been criticized by one outspoken investor over plans to sell its book publishing and certain real estate assets. Advisory group Glass Lewis advised shareholders to vote in favor of candidates put forward by investor Urbano Cairo, increasing his chances to gain representation on the company’s new board, on which shareholders will vote on April 23. The
The head of Greece’s Orthodox Church said on Saturday it was willing to put property it owns up for development to help raise money to repay the country’s debt. The Orthodox Church is a powerful institution in Greece and owns more land than anyone except the state, including prime real estate in Athens. “Come, let’s develop (the property) for Greece,” Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens told Greek TV in an interview
By Jonathan Kaminsky NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) – Robert Durst, a real estate scion charged with murder in California, was indicted on Friday by a federal grand jury on a weapons charge stemming from his arrest last month in New Orleans, prosecutors said. The indictment diminishes the already slim chances of Durst being extradited soon to Los Angeles County, where prosecutors want him for the 2000 slaying of Susan Berman, in
(Reuters) – Blackstone Group LP is the largest private real estate investment business in the world, with funds focused on opportunistic transactions, debt, core assets and a publicly traded real estate investment trust, Blackstone Mortgage Trust.
GE shares jumped 7.5 percent on Friday after the company outlined plans for substantially shrinking its GE Capital unit. The plan includes a buyback of up to $50 billion in GE shares, the sale of about $30 billion in real estate assets over the next two years and the disposal of more GE Capital operations. The repurchase program, which will be partly funded by $35 billion through money returned
The S&P Industrials was up 1.5 percent as the best performing of the 10 major S&P sectors, paced by GE’s gain. General Electric jumped 7.6 percent to $27.69 as the most active stock on the New York Stock Exchange, with more than 236 million shares changing hands. The stock has been under-owned by institutional investors and that’s going to change now,” said Tom Donino, co-head of equity trading at First
(Reuters) – Real estate investment trust Excel Trust Inc said it would be bought by Blackstone Property Partners LP, part of Blackstone Group LP , for about $2 billion in cash. Blackstone Property will pay $15.85 per share, a premium of about 15 percent to Excel’s closing price on April 9. (Reporting by Avik Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Ted Kerr)
Filed under: Buying, Financing, Selling Shutterstock Conventional loans are the foundation of the mortgage industry. In a recent week, only about one in four prospective borrowers applied for a government-backed loan, according to survey data from the Mortgage Bankers Association. The Federal Housing Administration and the Department of Veterans Affairs basically insure home loans made by participating lenders. These loans tend to have more lenient credit and underwriting requirements compared