Madison Alder Zach Brandon posts the latest development plans for Fitchburg’s Super Target.
Category: Real Estate
Fed’s Bies Warns on Mortgage & Real Estate Lending
Regulators are concerned about heavy commercial real estate exposures and risky mortgage lending practices at U.S. banks, Federal Reserve Board Governor Susan Bies said on Thursday.
“There are certain rapidly growing business lines in banking operations that are placing pressures on risk-management systems,” Bies told a financial services industry conference as she outlined guidance regulators have issued on commercial real estate and so-called nontraditional mortgage lending.
In discussing the guidance on exotic mortgage products, such as interest-only loans, Bies repeated that government regulators were concerned risk-management practices had not kept pace with the risks that these widely available loan products could present.
Americans Grow to Fit Their Environment
Perhaps, not all that surprising. The housing numbers, “I think” reflect low interest rates and a generally expanding econompy.
City of Madison Comprehensive Plan
A couple of hours before the council meeting in the same room, they attended a presentation about the City of Madison Comprehensive Plan. This plan, mandated by state law, and a work in progress over the last couple of years, will serve as a long-term roadmap for the city’s infrastructural future. It is also up for a vote on Tuesday, Dec. 13 by the full council, though it is likely to be referred to a subsequent meeting in early January.
Calculated Risk: GDP Growth With and Without Mortgage Extraction
Calculated Risk:
The recent Flow of Funds report showed that household mortgages increased a record $289.5 Billion in Q3 2005. Using a simple formulation for Mortgage Equity Withdrawal (MEW), MEW was $171 Billion in Q3.
Kelo Politics
Mike Beebe, Arkansas’s attorney general and a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, said some complacent things about the state property rights after Kelo. Republican Asa Hutchinson pounced. The tussle suggests that takings will be an issue in the campaign, with each candidate trying to demonstrate his property rights bona fides. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports:
Dane County Survey: Residents Support Planned Growth
Dane County residents want to see planned growth within their borders, according to a survey conducted this spring by the Comprehensive Planning Steering Committee.
The survey of 500 county residents shows a majority of those surveyed want Dane County government to be involved in planning rather than letting local municipalities have full control or just letting the market decide where growth takes place.
Full survey results: Comprehensive Planning Survey (PDF)
Racine’s Artist Colony
IF Racine, Wis., is not yet the Hamptons of the Midwest, it’s not for lack of effort.
This formerly gritty industrial city roughly 70 miles north of Chicago and 30 miles south of Milwaukee on the shores of Lake Michigan has been trying for much of the last decade to reinvent itself as an artist’s colony and tourist destination.
The efforts have included the opening of the $11 million Racine Art Museum on Main Street in 2003 and the creation of a gallery district centering on nearby Sixth Street, currently home to about a dozen galleries.
Racine Map. Madison based Gorman & Company, developer of the Mitchell Wagon Factory Lofts is mentioned in Sharoff’s article.
Racine is considering county-wide WiFi. Perhaps they’ll have it in place before we Madisonians do?
California’s Housing Boom – How long?
Herron put no money down for her tidy one-bedroom, borrowing the entire purchase price of $211,000. To keep her monthly payments as low as possible, she got an adjustable-rate mortgage that won’t require her to pay any principal for three years.
Thanks to her “interest-only” loan, the 911 police dispatcher was able to afford, barely, her first home. She now has a stake in California’s sizzling real estate market. As her home increases in value, she plans to use some of that equity to pay down her credit cards.
Paying to Keep Green Space
Peter Maller writes about P. Richard Schumann’s efforts to purchase farmer’s development rights while they continue farming:
Schumann is preparing an advisory referendum for the November ballot asking residents in the Town of Hartford if they are willing to pay higher property taxes to fund such purchases of development rights.
The goal is for the land to remain undeveloped.
“I think we have very strong support,” said Schumann, founder and president of the community’s newly organized Town Preservation Committee. “Keeping the style of life we have, preserving farmland and green space, is very near and dear to people’s hearts.”