Lew Sichelman

Economy, Market & Trends
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Capital Markets and Finance
Loan Limit Dip to Hit 5 Million Houses
The government has two sets of mortgage loan limits—one for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which help keep local lenders flush with cash by purchasing their loans and packaging them into securities for sale to investors worldwide, and another for the FHA, which insures mortgages against default. Read what will happen when the temporary federal mortgage ceilings revert to lower levels on October 1.
June 29, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
Economy, Market & Trends
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Capital Markets and Finance
The End of the 30-Year Fixed-Rate Mortgage?
Are the GSEs—Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac—careening toward obsolescence, taking the traditional 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with them? The Obama administration may gradually wind down Fannie and Freddie until they are mere figments of their former selves at the end of five to seven years, if they survive at all. Read what industry experts have to say about this divisive issue.
June 22, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
Development and Construction
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Industry Sectors
New-Home Market Poised to Pop
At the NAHB’s spring construction forecast conference late last month, economists agreed that the next 12 months are going to be difficult for homebuilders. After that, however, momentum is expected to begin to build in 2012 and, by the end of that year, homebuilders may be where they were at the beginning of 2007. Read the data on future single-family starts that industry experts shared.
May 4, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
http://urbanland.uli.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/magazineimages/inline/2011/April/SichelmanWetlands_1_200-200x300.jpg
Public Spaces
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Industry Sectors
Wetlands Deal Is Major Conservation Easement
The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is about to secure permanent easements on five properties totaling more than 26,000 acres (10,526 ha) in the Northern Everglades Watershed in central Florida. Read how ULI member and land broker Dean Saunders pulled this deal together, and how granting conservation easements is often better than selling land outright for conservation.
April 5, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
Residential
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Economy, Market & Trends
Home Sizes Inching Up Again
Lew Sichelman notes that, after two years of declines, the size of the average home is increasing once again after peaking at 2,520 square feet (234.3 sq m) in 2007. An analyst at the National Association of Home Builders, however, warns against believing that the trend toward downsizing is over. Learn where the size of the average home is increasing and how the components of new homes are changing to meet consumer demand.
February 8, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
Capital Markets and Finance
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Economy, Market & Trends
NAHB/Orlando: Single-Family Forecasts Less Than Rousing
With hardly anywhere else to go but up, the NAHB’s chief economist, David Crowe, predicts a 21% increase in single-family housing starts this year, but warned that such a big percentage jump will not result in much of an improvement. Read what Crowe, his counterpart at Freddie Mac, and his counterpart at Portland Cement Association said at this year’s NAHB’s annual convention.
January 17, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
Capital Markets and Finance
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Economy, Market & Trends
NAHB/Orlando: Severe Apartment Shortage Looms
The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) is projecting a 16 percent increase in multi-family housing starts this year and a 50 percent jump in 2012 . But the 336,000 units developers are expected to produce over the next 24 months still won’t be enough to meet demand. Read what NAHB chief economist David Crowe, and other industry experts, had to say at NAHB’s annual convention in Orlando, Florida.
January 13, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
Capital Markets and Finance
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Economy, Market & Trends
NAHB/Orlando: Finance News for Home Builders
News from NAHB’s annual convention, which was last week in Orlando, Florida: The inability to obtain and hold on to financing to buy land, turn it into building lots and build houses is now the single most important issue facing the nation’s home builders. Read more about the perspectives on finance coming from the NAHB’s annual convention.
January 12, 2011
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Lew Sichelman
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