Nearly 45 per cent of the government’s encroached land auctioned on Saturday fetched prices less than the guidance value. On the whole, 254 acres of land was auctioned for a mere Rs. 71.50 crore.
Though the remaining 140 acres of land fetched a little above the guidance value, bidders made a killing as the price they quoted was much below the market value.

Two parcels of land have brought $958,000 into the city coffers to boost next year’s budget.
Auctioneer Daniel J. Flynn was upbeat as he auctioned off the two tax title properties Friday afternoon. Hearing about the influx of money, city officials were, too.
“I’m ecstatic,” said Mayor Charles Crowley when told the city would collect $129,000 for a parcel on Johnson Street that had been the Old County School.
“The parcel is in an urban residential area and a single family home or duplex could go there by right,” said Asst. Mayor Gill …

Economic growth in the United States slowed to a near-crawl of 1.3 per cent at an annualized pace in the first three months of 2007, the worst performance in four years, the commerce department says.
The main culprit was the housing slump.
The reading on gross domestic product released yesterday was even weaker than the 2.5 per cent growth rate logged in the final three months of last year.
The new figures underscored how much momentum the economy has been losing as it copes with the strain of the troubled housing market, which …

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority is to auction off around 25 plots of land near to proposed metro stations, reported Gulf News. Abdul Mohsin, the CEO of Strategic and Corporate Governance at the RTA, said the land would be used for residential and commercial projects and would be handed over on long leases of around 30-35 years. Investors would have the opportunity to renew their leases.

Sales of non-new US homes fell 8.4% in March, the sharpest month-on-month drop for 18 years and a further illustration of weakness in the US housing market.
The data, from the National Association of Realtors, also showed the number of homes sold was at a near-four year low.
The housing market has stuttered badly in recent months, raising fears about the health of the economy in general.
Confidence has been hit by problems in the sub-prime mortgage market, with many lenders under severe pressure.
Sub-prime lenders loan money to people with poor credit histories …

Building lots and two houses owned by the city will be sold in the sixth of a series of property auctions next week.
The auction, with 13 properties on the block, will be conducted at 6:15 p.m. May 3 in City Hall on Lyon Terrace.
Brian Williams, the city’s deputy chief executive officer, said the five previous auctions of surplus city property took place on Saturdays. But city officials decided to hold their next auction on a weekday to avoid competition with auctions on foreclosed properties owned by the federal government.
The goal …

The Dubai Municipality held the first-of-its-kind auction to lease out its villas and shops located on the main Jumeirah Road stretching from Union House to Burj Al Arab.
A total of 12 commercial villas and 12 shops with sizes between 3,500 square feet to 5,000 square feet were auctioned to those who participated in the bidding at the free and fair auction, organised at the municipality’s club in Al Jaddaf. The villas can also be used for residential purposes.
Salah Al Qaiwani, Head of the Specialised Contracts and Investment Section, Dubai Municipality, …

The old Roseville Prison will be on the auction block this summer, during the county’s annual auction of surplus property.
Muskingum County Commissioners discussed setting a date Thursday for the auction, after a June 9 date was thrown out because two of the commissioners will be unable to attend.
Commissioner Brian Hill said the auction will be held sometime later in June on a Saturday at the county’s recycling center on Adamsville Road, and could include a special commissioners’ session that day so they can formally receive the bids.

The worst of the U.S. housing slump may be over but not the foreclosure nightmare that haunts many of the nation’s homeowners.
More than a quarter-million (253,803) pre-foreclosures and notices of pending foreclosure auctions were filed nationwide in the first quarter of the year. That means 2.4 out of every 1,000 homeowners faced losing their property to foreclosure in the first three months of 2007, according to new and expanded foreclosure filing numbers now available from ForeclosureS.com, a California-based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure and property information.
Those …

Three Burlington County farms are among five state-owned properties that will be auctioned to the public as permanently preserved farms later this year.
The state Department of Agriculture announced last week that three preserved farms in North Hanover and two in Hunterdon County will be sold at public auctions scheduled for June.
The idea is to return the properties to the state’s farming community now that they have been protected by the public from future development, state Agriculture Secretary Charles Kuperus said in a news release.
“We were pleased to be able to …