ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991                   TAG: 9103110389
SECTION: HOMES                    PAGE: B-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ECONOMISTS TO SPEAK IN MARTINSVILLE

Michael Carliner, the senior economist of the National Association of Home Builders, and Barbara Chauncey, president of the Virginia Mortgage Bankers Association, will speak Tuesday in Martinsville at a Builder-Dealer-Lender Seminar sponsored by American Standard Homes Inc. and the Martinsville-Henry County Home Builders Association.

The daylong gathering begins at 11 a.m. at American Standard, which manufactures single-family housing that now is sold in South America and, most recently, in Saudi Arabia.

W.C. Fowlkes, executive vice president of the home builders, is in charge of arrangements for the event. He can be reached at 703-666-7023.

Although some real estate agents, including those in the Roanoke Valley, are reporting increased interest in house hunting this year, more than two-thirds of the real estate executives surveyed in a new national poll believe it will take at least two years before the nation's slumping real estate market improves.

The 1,633 developers, lenders, brokers and other commercial and residential real estate professionals surveyed by the Arthur Andersen & Co. accounting firm, expressed widespread pessimism about today's market. More than half blamed financing constraints, excessive real estate inventory and low demand for the poor market conditions.

The survey turned up three bright investment spots on the national real estate horizon: multifamily housing, commercial warehouses and custom "build-to-suit" housing.

Over the next three years, survey participants said they felt most optimistic about real estate development prospects in the Pacific Northwest, California and the Southeast. The survey also said Seattle, Houston, and Dallas, had the most potential for real estate investment in the next three years.

In an effort to bolster the area real estate market, the Roanoke Valley Association of Realtors will announce plans later this week for a "Yes You Can" campaign. Part of the campaign will be to inform the public about the available of mortgage loans at good rates, said Frances Bridge, spokeswoman for the group.

-Los Angeles Times 


 by CNB