Housing News Digest, July 7

Jobless '99ers' have fallen though the safety net
SEWELL, New Jersey — Mary Kay Coyne has just filed what she says is her 1,862nd job application since being thrown out of work three years ago.
She is one of millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits have expired — after 99 weeks in many states — as the United States suffers its highest level of long-term unemployment since 1948.

Housing comeback would help industrial market
Even a modest improvement in Denver’s housing construction market would be a boon to the area’s industry market that remains stalled in the early stages of a “recovery mode,” according to a top industrial broker.

“In the last three-year period, we pulled fewer building permits than in 1991,” said Jason Addlesperger, an industrial broker at Newmark Knight Frank Frederick Ross, during a wide-ranging “Mile High Market Trends Forum” today at the commercial real estate company’s headquarters at 1800 Larimer.

$167 Million in Financing Secured by HFF for The Breakers Resort in Denver
Situated on 127 acres, The Breakers Resort is located at 9099 East Mississippi Avenue close to Cherry Creek, the Lowry Redevelopment and a new community shopping center. The “strongly performing” property is 96 percent leased and is comprised of six interconnected communities, each with their own clubhouse, surrounding a 55-acre recreational lake. The project has an attractive low density of 14 units to the acre and has a master clubhouse featuring a large fitness center with views of the Rockies, restaurant, business center, community room and private theater. The property has 50 one- and two-bedroom floorplans averaging 1,019 square feet each. Also included, is an 18.23-acre apartment development parcel, which is one of the best remaining infill apartment sites in Denver, according to HFF.

Colorado seniors' expenses strain budgets, index shows
Colorado seniors who rent housing need at least $21,828 a year on average to continue living independently, according to the Elder Economic Security Standard Index. Housing represents the largest expense for Colorado seniors, with average rents for a one-bedroom unit ranging from $1,093 in Pitkin County to $468 in Logan County.
In Denver, seniors pay $796 a month in rent on average and need $22,536 on average to remain independent.

FHA gives jobless homeowners one-year break
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is making it easier for out-of-work homeowners to stay in their homes, as it tries to revamp its troubled foreclosure-prevention program.

Starting Aug. 1, the Federal Housing Administration will extend the period for unemployed homeowners to miss mortgage payments to a full year from three or four months. That will allow qualified homeowners to go without making a monthly payment for 12 months before the foreclosure process begins.