Downtown L.A. is doing better than you think it is, but the government needs to do more to energize the city, said one of the region's longest and most successful real estate leaders.

Bill Witte is retiring after running Related California, a large-scale developer of both luxury and low-income apartments, for more than three decades.

Among the...Read more

DETROIT — Downtown bustled this week with shoppers like Bill Atwood, 55, who stopped by GW Home to buy his wife a lamp for Christmas. The Detroiter has lived in Brush Park for 26 years and remembers the scarce retail offerings back then.

“I always dreamed of being able to Christmas shop here,” he said. “Back in 1999 there was almost ...Read more

After business consultant Len Kendall lost his Pacific Palisades home in the January firestorms, he sought to put a temporary stop on his mortgage payments but set aside the effort after realizing the paperwork involved.

So he was pleased to learn in September about a new state law that required mortgage servicers to offer up to 12 months of ...Read more

If you’re buying a home, refinancing your mortgage, or just want to know how much your home is worth, you’re probably going to need a property appraisal.

At its most basic, “an appraisal is an opinion of value for a home,” said Matthew Sestito, a Philadelphia-based appraiser who works throughout the five-county area for the national ...Read more

Unexpected events, such as an emergency room visit or a broken-down car, can result in major financial problems when you don’t have an emergency fund in place.

It’s not just about having some cash — ideally enough to cover at least six months of your expenses — set aside for those worst-case scenarios, though. Where you keep that money...Read more

As vet bills skyrocket, more and more pet owners are turning to insurance programs to prevent their pets’ surprise illness from becoming a financial hardship.

But the devil is in the details, and complaints have surfaced that procedures and care that consumers thought were covered by the policies they purchased actually weren’t covered.

A ...Read more

More homebuyers have been backing out of home-purchase agreements in many parts of Florida and across the U.S., a new analysis shows.

Florida and Texas are seeing more newly built homes “than anywhere else in the country,” leading some buyers to back out of deals because they feel they might find a better option, according to Redfin, a real...Read more

Vacancy rates for life science space are at record highs, and a few firms are capitalizing on the downturn.

The region’s core cluster vacancy rate is a record 31.2%, up from 20.4% a year ago, according to a report by commercial real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle. Vying to fill vacant buildings, landlords are offering incentives like free ...Read more

NEW ULM, Minnesota – Leaders in this southern Minnesota city, famous for its German heritage, have adopted a new philosophy to combat its housing crisis: saying “ja.”

Over the past few months, the City Council in this town of about 14,000 has approved a flurry of housing projects, including nearly two-dozen shed houses in an industrial ...Read more

CHICAGO — The remaking of North Michigan Avenue will take another step forward next year with the opening of a new two-story Chase/J.P. Morgan banking center in a former clothing store across from the Water Tower.

The high-traffic retail location at 830 N. Michigan Ave. will feature a Chase branch at street level and a J.P. Morgan Financial ...Read more

Average rents in San Diego County have fallen for six straight months and have reached a milestone not seen since in 15 years.

Rents are down 0.3% year-over-year to an average $2,520 per month in early December, said real estate tracker CoStar. San Diego County has not seen average rent decline on an annual basis since the end of 2010.

Of ...Read more

Picture this: A sandy, 25-mile stretch of beach, just a three-hour drive from Miami but devoid of grocery stores or gas stations, restaurants, bars or hotels. Instead, sea turtles nest on the beach, their hatchlings’ sense of orientation protected by dark-sky rules and by long-term residents who know to handle them with care on their extensive...Read more

In a move that significantly expands its footprint in the mortgage servicing landscape, Pontiac, Michigan-based United Wholesale Mortgage Holdings Corp. said Wednesday it would acquire Two Harbors Investment Corp. in an all-stock deal valued at $1.3 billion.

The merger combines United Wholesale Mortgage with Two Harbors, a real estate ...Read more

An Amazon warehouse near the gates of Los Angeles International Airport has sold for a record price as logistics centers near transportation hubs grow in value.

The real estate investment arm of global financial services firm Morgan Stanley recently paid $211 million for the distribution center on 98th Street amid several private long-term ...Read more

PayPal Holdings Inc. applied to become a bank in the U.S., looking to take advantage of the Trump administration’s openness to financial-technology companies entering the banking system.

The payments-focused firm submitted applications to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Utah Department of Financial Institutions to form a Utah-...Read more