The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has sued two real-estate brokerages, accusing them of receiving kickbacks for steering home sellers to a provider of hazard reports.
The suit, filed on Wednesday in the central district of California, seeks to recover “illegitimate profits” generated by “sham” joint ventures formerly operated by Realogy Corp., Prudential California [...]

Blackstone Group’s real-estate arm is close to a deal to sell office buildings in Seattle and Washington, D.C., to Beacon Capital Partners, a Boston-based real-estate investment firm, for about $6.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Earlier this week the private equity firm won a three-month bidding [...]

Jefferies & Company, Inc., the principal operating subsidiary of Jefferies Group, Inc., announced the hiring of Anindya Chatterjee as a Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst covering growing companies in India, China and Southeast Asia. Mr. Chatterjee has 12 years of experience as an analyst, strategist and consultant focused on emerging markets and cross-border [...]

Merrill Lynch today introduced “The Merrill Lynch Equity Volatility Arbitrage Index,” a tracking index, which is quoted intraday on Bloomberg under the symbol MLHFEV1.
The Merrill Lynch Equity Volatility Arbitrage Index seeks to replicate the returns of an S&P 500 volatility arbitrage strategy employed by many actively managed hedge funds. The Index uses rules to [...]

While the media has often told the story of slumping home prices and record inventories, the leading association of real estate agents has prepared a more upbeat message.
Starting next week, the National Association of Realtors will begin a $40 million blitz of television and radio ads touting now as a “good time to buy.”
The two, [...]

Many lenders have been challenged by the unique characteristics of condo hotel and fractional real estate projects. Vacation properties often do not fit a standard mortgage underwriting mold because of scarce-locations or unique features. More than 60,000 condo hotel units coming to market in the next 24 months, and fractional real estate sales growing at [...]

Las Vegas Sands Corp (LVS) plans to invest ‘a couple of billion’ US dollars in an island resort complex on Hengqin Island in southern China which will complement the casinos and hotels the company plans to build in the nearby gambling enclave of Macau, the Wall Street Journal reported, quoting Sands chairman Sheldon Adelson.
The business [...]

Britney Spears has a little extra pocket change after selling her Manhattan condo for $4 million, People.com reported Monday, citing a Wall Street Journal report.
The condo, whose previous owners include Keith Richards and hip-hop titan Russell Simmons, had been on the market for more than two years.
Meanwhile, the Olsen twins have put their Los [...]

ANGELINA Jolie has escaped to the tranquillity of an upmarket Los Angeles hotel in the wake of speculation that her planned wedding to Brad Pitt is off and their relationship on the rocks.
Jolie, 31, and her children booked into the hotel last week without her actor lover of more than a year and father of [...]