The pioneering estate builders are given their due, but the details definitely lack glitter.
Construction spending data in May also fell by more than expected, dashing hopes for real estate builders and developers.
Vacation homebuyers and retirees have been able to tap their home equity and investment portfolios in recent years, reinvesting it in real estate, builders say.
And in real estate, builder confidence and residential building growth (PDF) continued to gain momentum, existing home sales and prices went up and architectural billings turned positive.
PINNACLE ENTERTAINMENT INC., Glendale, Calif., an operator of racetracks, hotels and casinos, said it would sell 60 acres of land in Inglewood, Calif., near the Hollywood Park Race Track, to the closely held Rothbart Development Corp., a retail real estate builder in Southern California, for $36 million.
Some of the most prominent members of the American social elite made the trip: real estate builder, businessman, and multimillionaire Colonel John Jacob Astor IV and his 18-year-old pregnant wife Madeleine, who were returning to the United States for their child's birth.
These are commercial loans that hard-working men and women in real estate -- builders, brick masons, plumbers, house painters, grading companies, brokers and others -- can't pay back because the economy tanked.
Estate agents, builders, lenders, many economists and even Alan Greenspan, chairman of America's Federal Reserve, have all insisted that there is no house-price bubble.
Bundled money has always been collected by real estate executives, builders, lawyers, lobbyists, leaders of ethnic or religious groups and other business leaders.
But now, during a nationwide real estate downturn, builders are not starting projects or scrambling to finish ones already under way, so there is little need for night-work illumination.
David Sacarny, the owner of Everest Estate Homes, builders in Bronxville, said the market for brand new luxury homes also experienced an upswing in January after a temporary downturn in the last quarter of 2002.
