Ginsburg stated that treating builder business as a core pillar rather than a side channel reflects a broader industry shift. He believes a healthy balance of builders should be around 15% to 20% of the overall retail book of business.
Through Community Facilities Districts (CFD), Municipal Utility Districts (MUD), Public Improvement Districts (PID), Community Development Districts (CDD) and reimbursement districts (RD), builders can potentially shift infrastructure costs off their balance sheets and onto special districts that homebuyers ultimately absorb through property taxes without potentially adding debt to the builder's books.
First Interstate Mortgage Co.'s income property division has arranged a $2.3-million construction loan and $2.6-million permanent loan for the rehabilitation of an existing three-story building in Pasadena, located at 95 N. Marengo St.
Working inside an operating business changed how I look at buildings. You stop seeing square footage and start seeing workflow. That perspective still guides his work today. It helps him understand tenants and advise property owners with more clarity.
The filing outlines a 124-foot-tall, 12-story concrete structure that would span about 116,798 square feet. Plans carve out approximately 94,169 square feet for residential use and 22,454 square feet for commercial use, with 99 residences in the primary building and 164 units across the full lot. The proposal also includes 13 open parking spaces, 28 enclosed parking spaces, and rooftop terraces on the fifth and eighth floors.
By focusing on what others aren't building, solidifying relationships on the ground, improving processes incrementally, and carving out a niche where they can stand apart from peers, private builders can achieve stronger margins, maintain brand value and grow sustainably despite the advantages held by large public competitors.
Mortgage rates are near 6%, which means it costs builders less to do a buy-down, and because they sell homes as a commodity, they're trying their best to manage this cycle and their profit margins. This means selling a new home in recent years has been more of a calculation on how much builder credit they can and need to give.
Two veteran real estate firms are eyeing a proposal to produce well over 400 homes at an office building site in San Jose in a fresh indication that housing conversion efforts remain of interest to developers. The potential development site is at 3550 North First St. in San Jose, a property that is owned by an affiliate of LBA Realty, Santa Clara County real estate documents show.
Aside from the ongoing geopolitical turmoil we've seen, as well as concerns around inflation driven by quickly-changing tariff and trade policies, the direction of monetary policy coming out of the Federal Reserve could be the hot topic many will be watching very closely. Given president Trump's views on interest rates (namely, that they're way too high right now), a pressure campaign is still being waged on the Fed to drop rates, and do so quickly.
West Palm Beach, Fla.-based Mesocore Modular Homes is introducing an expandable modular housing model aimed at improving affordability and disaster relief, an important issue in a state prone to devastating hurricanes. Positioned as an affordable housing solution for both homebuyers and city leaders, planners, emergency management professionals, and resilience experts focused on addressing climate-driven risks, Mesocore's expandable home can start as a 420-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath home with a private bedroom, a full kitchen, a living area, and a built-in desk.
SAN JOSE - A huge San Jose site once deemed to be a prime candidate for a high-profile tech campus has been bought by a veteran real estate firm with extensive experience in the Bay Area real estate market. The 24-acre property in North San Jose was bought for $50.5 million by an affiliate of Four Corner Properties, according to documents filed Jan. 15 with the Santa Clara County Recorder's Office. BXP, a real estate titan with a coast-to-coast reach that was previously known as Boston Properties, was the seller in the all-cash deal, the county documents show.
Cedar Street just came out victorious in a multi-year saga with the city of La Canada Flintridge, winning the first successful builder's remedy case in California Superior Court for its 80-unit mixed-use project at 600 Foothill Boulevard and setting a path for other developers to build. But the fight may have left its scars, in time, stress and now soured relationships with some officials.
