The Lede

Housing Wire, Jan. 11, 2016--Lane, Ben When Real Estate Disposition rebranded itself as Auction.com in 2011, the company led a migration of distressed property auctions online. Since then, the company has expanded its distressed property auction business in both residential and commercial sales and recently became a desired portal for traditional real estate sales as well.

Reuters, Jan. 11, 2016--Schneider, Howard Global risks including a slowdown in China and continued low oil prices are now the chief risks to what is an otherwise promising outlook for the U.S. economy, Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart said on Monday.

National Mortgage News, Jan. 11, 2016--Macheel, Tanaya The commercial mortgage-backed securities delinquency rate finished 2015 at a six-year low, said Fitch Ratings.

National Mortgage News, Jan. 12, 2016--Finkelstein, Brad In a mostly light-hearted interview on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," HUD Secretary Julian Castro defended the agency against Republican calls for its shutdown.

Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12, 2016--Kusisto, Laura After six years of rising apartment rents in U.S. cities, investors from all corners of the real-estate industry are piling into new projects in a bet the boom still has a long way to run.

Dallas News, Jan. 12, 2016--Brown, Steve Despite challenges of storefront retailing in the e-commerce age, Dallas-Fort Worth shopping center vacancies are starting out 2016 with the lowest vacancy in 31 years.

Wall Street Journal, Jan. 12, 2016--Light, Joe The Federal Housing Finance Agency said so-called captive insurance companies, which insure the risks of the companies that own them, no longer will be eligible for membership in government-backed federal home loan banks. Mortgage Bankers Association President David Stevens said the rule "removes a vital component of the FHLBank membership which provides liquidity for the real estate finance market."

National Real Estate Investor, Jan. 13, 2016--Mattson-Teig, Beth Banks are wading through the still murky issue of dealing with new Basel III rules related to high volatility commercial real estate loans. "We have definitely heard of instances where lending decisions have been impacted by the HVCRE rule," says George Green, a senior vice president at the Mortgage Bankers Association.

U.S. office rents increased at their fastest pace in seven years in 2015 as robust job gains and lagging construction created tighter market conditions in most markets, reported Cushman & Wakefield, New York.

Investor sentiment toward real estate should remain positive globally going forward and primary target markets will continue to draw the most interest, predicted Colliers International, Seattle.

U.S. homes nationwide grew by $1.1 trillion in value in 2015, ending the year at $28.5 trillion, reported Zillow Inc., Seattle. 

Non-agency commercial mortgage-backed securities issuance totaled $94.59 billion in 2015, up 6.3 percent compared to 2014, reported Wells Fargo Securities, Charlotte, N.C.

Rents for new residents of U.S. apartment communities rose 4.8 percent last year, reported MPF Research, Carrollton, Texas.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency yesterday issued a final rule on Federal Home Loan Bank membership that retains a controversial Mortgage Bankers Association-opposed restriction on captive insurers. 

Steven Bradshaw, testifying on Capitol Hill yesterday on behalf of the Mortgage Bankers Association, said the National Flood Insurance Program is "unsustainable" in its current form and should be expanded to accommodate private flood insurance options.