Did You See The Front Page of The Paper? Yeah.. Which one?

Ever wanted to see the front page of today's paper? Which one you ask? ALL of them. Newseum has a page that is constantly updated with an image of today's front page from literally every newspaper on the planet (556 from 9/17/07).

Tiger Woods was on the cover of today's Manila Standard Today. But my favorite is the pictorial for the Global Warming at the bottom left.

Or, there is OJ's mug shot on literally 200+ newspapers from his ordeal in Vegas. Good Luck buddy.

Or, there is the Monterey County Herald (Calif.) that shows the celebration of locals from Mexico's independence from Spain.

Silicon Valley: Another huge commercial property sale said to be in works

One of the region's most-respected commercial property owners is contemplating the sale of his entire 7.7-million square-foot Silicon Valley portfolio, sources say. But neither party to the potential transaction would confirm details on Friday.

Well-placed sources in valley real estate say Carl Berg is selling his entire Silicon Valley portfolio to Starwood Capital Group, a privately owned, Connecticut-based real estate investment firm. The deal, if done, would be the largest commercial property sale in Silicon Valley history, as measured by square footage.

The previous record-setter was the Peery-Arrillaga portfolio of 5.3 million square feet, which sold last year for more than $1 billion. A purchase price for the Berg deal could not be learned, but one source said it will likely total less than the Peery-Arrillaga sale.

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NorCal: Foreclosures' furious pace

SJ is 1st, Merced 2nd, Stanislaus 4th in nation's mortgage defaults

By J.N. SBRANTI
jnsbranti@modbee.com

Last Updated: July 12, 2007, 09:44:58 AM PDT

About $925 million worth of mortgages have been foreclosed on since January in the Northern San Joaquin Valley, and 2,575 homes have been auctioned off on courthouse steps in Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Merced counties.

During June alone, there were 203 home foreclosure auctions in Modesto at which lenders tried to recover what they could from $66 million in delinquent loans, according to the ForeclosureRadar research firm.

By comparison, only 15 such home auctions took place in June 2006, and those loans were worth just $4 million, said Sean O'Toole, who owns ForeclosureRadar, a research firm based in Discovery Bay.

O'Toole has been tracking the rapid rise in foreclosures throughout California. Statewide last month, he said, there were foreclosure auctions for 6,960 homes with loan values of $2.83 billion.

"Foreclosure sales now represent about 16 percent of all home sales in California," O'Toole said.

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Local News: Elk Grove council approves mall plan

The open-air facility will be the first regional shopping center in the city.

By Sandy Louey - Bee Staff Writer

Published 6:29 am PDT Thursday, July 12, 2007
Story appeared in METRO section, Page B2

Late Wednesday night the Elk Grove City Council approved plans for a 1.1 million-square-foot open-air shopping mall.

Elk Grove Promenade, the city's first regional shopping center, will have as much retail space as the 1.1 million-square-foot Arden Fair mall and nearly as much as the 1.3 million-square-foot Roseville Galleria.

The council approved the development plan 3-1. Councilmen Gary Davis, Patrick Hume and Michael Leary voted in favor, while Councilwoman Sophia Scherman was opposed. Mayor Jim Cooper was out of town.

The 107-acre project at Grant Line Road and Highway 99 is expected to generate nearly $4 million in sales tax revenue its first full year of operation and provide 2,500 jobs, according to Louis Bucksbaum, who is overseeing the project for Chicago-based General Growth Properties.

General Growth hopes to break ground this summer with October 2008 as the opening date.

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Local News: Housing project limited in scope

Feed: Recordnet News Headlines
Posted on: Thursday, July 12, 2007 4:00 AM
Author: Recordnet News Headlines
Subject: Housing project limited in scope

LODI - The committee that is overseeing an affordable-housing project on Lodi's East Side voted Wednesday to limit development to senior rental homes.

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COPPEROPOLIS - It will be at least another two weeks before the developers of Tuscany Hills win approval for their plan to bring 335 luxury homes, a golf course and an aggressive lake protection plan to 1,113 acres on the shore of Lake Tulloch.

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FW: Federal officials reject local site for biolab (2:12 p.m.)

Feed: Recordnet News Headlines
Posted on: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 3:08 PM
Author: Recordnet News Headlines
Subject: Federal officials reject local site for biolab (2:12 p.m.)

TRACY – Officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security have rejected a controversial bid to build a laboratory researching some of the most deadly and incurable diseases on a high-explosives test range in the hills southwest of Tracy.

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Doerken Properties buys Sacramento properties

Doerken Properties Inc., a Santa Monica real estate investment firm, has purchased a portfolio of three Sacramento-area properties for $64.4 million.

Doerken purchased the portfolio from Kimco Realty Corp. The three properties Doerken bought are:

• Commonwealth Square, 703 East Bidwell St. in Folsom -- anchored by Raley's, the shopping center is 97.5 percent occupied
• Kmart Center, 5200 Stockton Blvd. in Sacramento -- anchored by Kmart and Big Lots, the center is 100 percent occupied
• Glenbrook Shopping Center, 8700 La Riviera Drive in Sacramento -- anchored by Big Lots, the center is 100 percent occupied.

The deal was financed by George Smith Partners.

California to build 'world's largest' solar farm

Cleantech America, a San Francisco based developer, has launched a project to build the world's largest solar farm, giving this Spanish solar tower a run for its money, as well as insulting the work of countless Tesco engineers and their puny, insignificant solar roof. When completed in 2011, the 80-megawatt spread of solar panels will cover roughly 640 acres and be 17 times the size of the largest US solar farm in existence. The project, which will generate enough power for nearly 21,000 homes, will be sold to the Kings River Conservation District, a public agency that purchases power for 12 cities and two counties in California's Central Valley. The company hopes that a solar farm of this size will be an industry-wide tipping point for energy providers, and will drive the cost of solar energy downward. Meanwhile, Tesco and Spain will be plotting their sublime revenge.

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Modesto - SJ Valley Home Bidders Beware..

Another home foreclosure auction is headed to Modesto, and it's got potential bidders hankering for a bargain. But before you start waving your bidding number in front of a fast-talking auctioneer, there are things you should know about home auctions. Most of the more than 500 people who attended last month's auction in Modesto never had seen houses sold that way. The process caused confusion because some deals quickly fell through with several of the high bidders. Those houses ended up being auctioned off again and again, until the auctioneer found bidders who were financially qualified to purchase the homes and had brought sufficient down payment funds.

Bidding rules will be different for the next big auction, scheduled by Hudson & Marshall for July 19 at Modesto Centre Plaza. And more auctions are expected to be held later this summer and fall. That's because lending institutions have repossessed thousands of Northern San Joaquin Valley homes, and they're eager to sell them any way they can. So here are some bidding tips for first-time buyers, seasoned real estate investors and everyone else who is considering buying a home at auction:

RESEARCH HOME VALUES — "It's definitely a buyer's market and everything's on sale right now," said Ken David Elving, co-owner of Matel Realtors. He is representing the sellers of five homes that will be auctioned July 19 in Modesto.

To determine a home's value, Elving said, don't rely on what homes sold for in the past because prices have been falling very quickly. "Focus on the prices being asked for homes for sale now," Elving said. To determine a "comp" — or comparable price — he suggested looking on a Web site to see the asking price for similar homes. Current asking prices often are substantially less than previous sales prices for identical homes.

Example: Elving said a home in the July 19 auction at 1855 Vintage Circle in Oakdale sold in May 2006 for about $550,000. By this spring, that 2,784square-foot home was back on the market for $394,000. No one bought it, so now it will go to the highest bidder. A search of properties for sale in that neighborhood shows several slightly larger homes priced about $360,000. So that $360,000 price may be a more logical bid than $550,000...

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