Real Estate Industry

Despite carnage on Wall Street, vacant storefronts on Madison Avenue and pricey restaurants offering "grill menus" (read: cheap burgers), some things remain unchanged in the great metropolis. The price of the average Manhattan apartment is still hovering at more than $1 million.

Was it the real estate downturn, or were people misled into a risky investment scheme? That's the question at the center of a lawsuit filed Tuesday that accuses Orange County real estate lender Dan J. Harkey of bilking dozens of investors out of more than $15 million. In an added twist, the investors claim that their money helped fund the election of Harkey's wife, state Assemblywoman Diane L. Harkey (R-Dana Point).

Marco Huerta and Youngmin Bae bought their Burbank home without ever meeting their real estate agent. Instead, they scoured listings for their favorite neighborhoods, haggled over prices and even wrote their offer using Marco's cellphone. There was no housewarming plant on the porch when they moved in, but the couple aren't complaining: They received a $10,000 check as a "rebate" from their agent's 3% commission. "It's a great incentive," said Marco Huerta, 32.

Want a gigantic mansion but just can't stand paying list price? The owners of a 15,000-square-foot waterfront beauty in Florida want to talk to you. Rich Ricciani and his wife, Linda, know how important it is to make every dollar count in this down economy, so they've issued a coupon for $1 million off their European-style manse, where the kitchen alone takes up 650 square feet.

About 1 in 10 Californians with a home loan is now in default, and there's growing evidence that the mortgage meltdown is spreading to commercial real estate. The home mortgage delinquency rate -- the percentage of borrowers who have missed several payments and are in the first stage of foreclosure -- climbed in June to 9.5% in California and 9.9% in Los Angeles County, according to First American CoreLogic.

The lousy economy continues to quash the commercial real estate market, driving down rents and pushing out tenants. Nearly a third of office space is flat-out empty in parts of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. A fifth of the offices are empty in the once-crowded Burbank Media District.

Real estate broker Carl Muhlstein maneuvered his silver BMW convertible through downtown Los Angeles traffic, one hand steering the car and the other pressing a cellphone to his ear. "Come on," he teased. "Insult me with an offer." While some who swim the deep and often lucrative waters of commercial real estate have retreated to the golf course, Muhlstein is among those pushing on -- joking, nudging and networking in hopes of making deals in a time of no deals.

Harold "Hal" A. Ellis Jr., a founder of real estate services firm Grubb & Ellis Co. and one of the best known figures in U.S. real estate, died Monday of metastatic melanoma at his home in Piedmont, Calif. He was 77. Ellis built a small Oakland brokerage into a powerhouse whose circular yellow and black signs dot thousands of stores, offices, factories and other commercial properties for sale or lease across the country.

Bono wants to save the world. But can the U2 front man save his homeland? Not long ago, the relentlessly philanthropic rock star, his band and a team of property developers looked at Dublin's dilapidated docklands and envisioned a tower that would rise like an exclamation mark punctuating the Irish capital's rejuvenation. The U2 Tower would be Ireland's tallest building, complete with luxury apartments and a recording studio for Bono and the boys.

Panden Rota, a Nepalese producer of fine rugs, is about to become a Manhattanite, the owner of a sumptuous apartment in the luxurious downtown neighborhood of Battery Park City. His primary residence will remain Katmandu, but his new home will enable him to spend more time at U.S. showrooms that display his rugs and with a brother and sister in New York. "I looked at many places and I decided that a Manhattan apartment will always hold its value," he said.