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WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 13, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The National Apartment Association (NAA) and National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) announced the apartment industry’s 2012 policy agenda today as part of the NAA Capitol Conference’s lobby day tomorrow. Top priorities for Capitol Hill in the year ahead include housing finance reform, comprehensive tax overhaul and cost-effective regulations.

WASHINGTON, DC - March 9, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- All across the country, owners of aging apartment complexes are looking for ways to reduce their energy consumption and save money. In order to test new and innovative ways to cut energy bills and to finance energy efficiency upgrades in existing multi-family residential properties, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded nearly $23 million to a dozen organizations on the cutting edge of bringing energy-saving solutions to the housing market.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - March 2, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) today announced a new comprehensive framework for housing finance system reform that would transition Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to a new mortgage securitization system for single-family and multifamily conventional mortgages.

WASHINGTON, DC - February 29, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Today, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Tim Johnson (D-SD) held the second in series of hearings on the state of the housing market and barriers to economic recovery. The Committee heard from HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan, Federal Reserve Board Governor Elizabeth Duke, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Acting Director Edward DeMarco.

Washington, DC - February 27, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today announced the first pilot transaction under the Real Estate-Owned (REO) Initiative, targeted to hardest-hit metropolitan areas — Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and parts of Florida. With this next step, prequalified investors will be able to submit applications to demonstrate their financial capacity, experience and specific plans for purchasing pools of Fannie Mae foreclosed properties with the requirement to rent the purchased properties for a specified number of years.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 24, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD) is pleased to announce a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) which is directed to owners of either existing affordable and/or workforce multifamily rental developments or developers of proposed new affordable and/or workforce multifamily rental developments seeking State General Obligation Bond Funds issued by DECD to be utilized as gap funding for various HUD, Connecticut Housing Finance Authority (CHFA), and other privately and publicly financed development proposals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 22, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) released a strategic plan for the future of the Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac today. The following is a statement from the National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) and National Apartment Association (NAA) by Cindy Chetti, NMHC Senior Vice President of Government Affairs:

WASHINGTON, DC - February 13, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) today unveiled a new pilot program to test an accelerated approval process for the purchase or refinancing of multi-family rental properties assisted through the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) Program.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 13, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Local homeowners are eligible for tens of millions of dollars in mortgage principal reductions and mortgage refinancing savings under a national settlement that state and federal enforcement agencies have reached with the five leading bank mortgage servicers, DC Attorney General Irvin B. Nathan said today. At Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s direction, the District joined in the settlement entered into by a contingent of state attorneys general.

Oak Brook, IL - February 9, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Media services provider Access Media 3 (“AM3”) has received $30 million in funding from ORIX Venture Finance and Petra Capital Partners. This cash infusion supports AM3’s aggressive strategic growth, which includes the company’s recent expansion to new regional markets in the Mid-Atlantic area. AM3 now supplies triple-play TV/internet/voice services to multi-dwelling unit properties in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington D.C., with over 50,000 subscribers in over 500 properties.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 8, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Mortgage applications increased 7.5 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association’s (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending February 3, 2012.

VIENNA, VA - February 7, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) today finalized regulations that require non-bank residential mortgage lenders and originators to establish anti-money laundering (AML) programs and file suspicious activity reports (SARs), as FinCEN requires of other types of financial institutions.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - February 2, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Market conditions continued to improve for the multifamily industry across all areas, according to the latest National Multi Housing Council (NMHC) Quarterly Survey of Apartment Market Conditions. For the seventh time in the last eight quarters, all four indexes reflecting Market Tightness, Sales Volume, Equity Financing and Debt Financing were at or above 50 – indicating growth from the previous quarter.

Torrance, CA - January 16, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Mountain Real Estate Capital (MREC) announces the closing of two notable acquisitions: one for a loan portfolio with residential assets located throughout South Carolina and a separate note purchase...

MISSION VIEJO, CA - January 11, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- Hammerhouse LLC, a national recruiting and strategic growth firm for the financial services industry with mortgage sales and leadership placement at its core, has released its outlook on key hiring trends in the mortgage industry in 2012, as presented by Drew Waterhouse, Managing Director of Hammerhouse.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - January 10, 2012 - (RealEstateRama) -- USAA Real Estate Company is pleased to welcome Will McIntosh, Ph.D. as Global Head of Research, providing research-based direction for real estate investing by analyzing and synthesizing economic, demographic, real estate, and capital markets data. In his role with USAA, McIntosh will provide both top-down and bottom-up research on markets and properties in addition to providing recommendations and direction on market and asset selection.

Charlotte, NC - December 29, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- With mortgage rates continuing to be near record lows, LendingTree.com, the nation’s leading online lender exchange and personal finance resource, today released data highlighting the average loan amount on residential real estate purchases for all 50 states and Washington D.C. for the year. Hawaii, by far, leads the nation with an average home loan amount of $677,299, followed by Washington D.C. at $393,453, New Jersey at $344,240 and New York at $340,124. The states with the lowest average home loan amounts are Mississippi at $137,182 and Nebraska at $137,515. The national average for a home loan is $222,261.

Washington, DC - December 22, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) today reported that the National Average Contract Mortgage Rate...

Norwalk, CT - December 21, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) have announced they will host a series of public roundtable meetings—including one in the United States—to discuss their proposals to improve and converge financial reporting by setting forth consistent criteria for determining whether an entity is an investment company. The U.S. roundtable will also include a discussion about the FASB’s proposed Accounting Standards Update, Real Estate—Investment Property Entities (Topic 973), which develops accounting guidance for entities focused on investing in real estate properties. The roundtables are designed to provide interested stakeholders the opportunity to engage in dialogue with FASB and IASB members and staff about the proposals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - December 20, 2011 - (RealEstateRama) -- The Housing and Economic Recovery Act (HERA) of 2008 made statutory changes to how income limits are calculated for LIHTC and bond-financed properties. HERA protected owners from rent decreases in 2009, and established a new system for owners to hold their income limits and rents harmless beginning in 2010.