Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.real From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: real Thu, Mar 5 1992 Date: Thu, 5 Mar 92 05:55:52 EST Message-ID: 03-05 0000 DECISIONLINE: Real Estate USA TODAY Update March 5, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network HOTEL INDUSTRY IS STRUGGLING: The hotel industry, badly bruised in recent years, is beginning to be on the mend. But it's too soon to turn off the vacancy signs. Two in three hotels lost money last year, says Bjorn Hanson of Coopers & Lybrand. Hotel property prices are 32% below their peak in the late 1980s, and $1.3 billion in hotel mortgages is in foreclosure. Another 13% of mortgages are in default. (For more, see special Hotels package below.) SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSING REBOUNDS: The single-family housing rebound continues to gain momentum, according to U.S. Housing Markets. The research publication says that single-family building permit volume in the fourth quarter jumped more than 19% from the fourth quarter of 1990. New England's single-family volume increased 13% in the quarter. Despite the auto industry slump, the Detroit-Ann Arbor market was busy. ATLANTA TOPS PERMITS LIST: The leader in single-family building permits issued for 1991 was Atlanta, with 20,000, according to U.S. Housing Markets. Dallas-Fort Worth was second with just over 15,000. Also busy: Chicago; Washington; Phoenix; Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif.; Las Vegas; Minneapolis-St. Paul; Houston; and Detroit-Ann Arbor. All had more than 10,000 permits issued for new single-family homes in 1991. ARM TO GO PUBLIC: ARM Holdings Corporation of La Jolla, Calif., has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of three million shares. ARM is the parent of American Residential Mortgage Corporation. Analysts say there's a market now for mortgage company offerings because their earnings are countercyclical. HOUSING SERVICE GRANT AWARDED: The Administration on Aging has awarded a grant to create the University of Southern California-based National Eldercare Institute on Housing and Supportive Services. The program will link health and social services with housing for elderly who are frail, low- to moderate-income and minorities. The National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials is on the advisory committee. UTAH COMPANY PLANS WASH. MALL: Construction will begin late this summer for a mall in Spokane, Wash., by a Utah development company. The 650,000-square-foot Spokane Valley Mall will expand eventually to 1 million square feet. The developer is Price Development Company of Salt Lake City. The mall will open in 1994. FIXED-RATE MORTGAGES STABLE: The rates for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. were listed at 8.83% Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday but up from 8.82% the week before. They were at 9.40% a year ago. For 30-year adjustable-rate mortgages, the rates were 5.93%, unchanged from Tuesday but up from 5.92% the week before. A year ago they were at 7.53%. ARM INDEXES UNCHANGED: The one-year Treasury ARM index rates were listed at 4.41% Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday but up from 4.37% the week before. A year ago they were at 6.40%. For the 11th District ARM index, rates were at 6.002%, unchanged from Tuesday and down from 6.245% the week before. A year ago they were at 7.858%. T-BONDS DECLINE: Treasury security rates for the 30-year bonds showed a decline Wednesday, listing at 7.91%. That's down 0.01 from rates of 7.92% Tuesday, but up 0.07 from 7.84% the week before. A year ago T-bonds were at 8.27%. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON HOTELS: OCCUPANCY RATES COME BACK: The hotel industry has been struggling but the worst may be over. Hotel occupancy rates, though still low, are struggling back towards profitable levels. The average room price - about $61 per day - has lost ground to inflation for almost three years. It's expected to rise only slightly this year, but show a solid after-inflation increase in 1993. BUILDING HAS SLOWED: The main reason for hope: The wave of speculative building that created the glut has come to a crashing halt. Bjorn Hanson of Coopers & Lybrand predicts developers will start work on only 18,000 new hotel rooms in 1992, compared to almost 160,000 in 1985, the peak year of the boom. Existing rooms, meanwhile, are disappearing, as older properties are demolished or converted. RTC UNLOADING HOTELS: The recapitalization process is already well under way, as mortgages are foreclosed or restructured. Lenders are moving foreclosed properties back onto the market at discount prices. Leading the way: The RTC, which owns over 100 hotels inherited from failed thrifts. The agency is pushing to unload those properties, and has sold 45 hotels in the past four months. (End of package.) Real Estate: Beth Mann. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM