Ron Childress

The owner of an affiliate of Sacramento's second-largest commercial brokerage firm has agreed to acquire broker Grubb & Ellis Co., which filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday.

Four more Sacramento-area residents face criminal charges as part of the federal government's investigation into one of the region's largest alleged mortgage fraud schemes.

An Elk Grove man was sentenced Friday to four years and nine months in prison for his role in an $8 million mortgage fraud scheme.

After five consecutive months of double-digit percentage gains, sales of single-family homes in the Sacramento area grew at a much slower pace in January.

Fair Oaks broker Steve Galster and Realtor Sue Galster, owners of Galster Real Estate Group, have announced that their 7-year-old agency is now an independently owned and operated franchise with Weichert Real Estate Affiliates.

Foreclosure starts in the Sacramento region slipped nearly 5.9 percent in January, but experts believe new filings will pick up now that the nation's largest banks have reached a settlement with 49 states over foreclosure abuses.

An audit by San Francisco officials of about 400 recent foreclosures there determined that almost all involved either legal violations or suspicious documentation, according to a report released Wednesday.

Sacramento developer Angelo K. Tsakopoulos on Thursday blamed a lenders agent for the loan default on an office complex Tsakopoulos controls, saying the agent was unwilling to negotiate an extension on the debt.

A federal grand jury has indicted three Sacramento residents for alleged money laundering and wire fraud as part of a wide-ranging mortgage fraud probe.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris said Saturday she is "doubling down" on prosecutions of predatory lending and other cases of lender misconduct in the wake of the $25 billion mortgage settlement announced last week.

Distressed homeowners in the Sacramento region will get an estimated $1.2 billion over the next three years under a 49-state settlement with the nation's largest banks over foreclosure abuses.

Attorney General Kamala Harris had rejected an earlier deal that she said gave inadequate relief to homeowners.

Riverside-based Provident Financial Holdings Inc., the holding company for Provident Savings Bank, said it has hired a retail mortgage banking group to operate from three Northern California cities, including Roseville.

California's redevelopment agencies officially are out of business, effective today. But that doesn't mean that the future of affordable housing is wiped out in the state.

Construction worker Bill Gates frames roofs at an apartment complex for low-income seniors in Elk Grove. Affordable housing advocates say the demise of California's redevelopment agencies will pose challenges for future projects providing low-cost homes, but the problems are not insurmountable.

Redevelopment money for affordable housing projects – such as this 69-unit complex for seniors under construction in Elk Grove – has been the second-largest funding source in California.

Chris Goodwin works on an Elk Grove apartment complex for low-income seniors. Redevelopment agencies once provided key funding for such projects, but are being phased out to help balance the state's budget.

Can R Street become downtown Sacramento's first true art and culture corridor? That's the idea being promoted by an experienced local developer.

The new arch over R Street, near the Fox & Goose Public House, is part of the city’s effort to turn the area around R Street into a lively ‘culture corridor.’ A developer says he wants to further those plans by rehabilitating the historic six-story warehouse at 11th and R streets into a complex where artists can live, work and sell their wares.

Past efforts to convert a vacant warehouse at R and 11th streets into housing have come to naught. But a developer now wants to turn the building that once housed Ford Model T's into an artists' haven and hangout.

Lezlie Sterling lsterling@sacbee.com As many as 120 apartment units and 25,000 square feet of retail space are proposed as part of the conversion of this old warehouse at R and 11th streets. The proposal is due for review by a city agency in March.

A federal investigation into one of the largest alleged mortgage schemes in the Sacramento region has produced new criminal charges.

Sacramento-area foreclosure sales soared 23.8 percent during the third quarter, according to a new report.

Housing construction in the Sacramento region fell to new lows in 2011 as the number of permits for single-family homes dropped by more than 15 percent.

Calling it "inadequate for California," the state is rejecting the latest settlement proposal between states and major U.S. banks over lending abuses that fueled the foreclosure crisis.

Quarterly foreclosure filings in the Sacramento region dropped to a four-year low, but they're expected to pick up this year.

The Sacramento office vacancy rate increased for the 18th consecutive quarter to an all-time high of 23.38 percent, according to commercial real estate brokerage firm Cornish & Carey Commercial.