Bastion Development is moving forward with new plans for a mixed-use project on the border between Los Angeles’ Mar Vista and Culver City. 

The Vancouver-based firm submitted a new application with the City of Los Angeles that revises its plans for the northern portion of the site at 3984 South Meier Street, a parcel that straddles Los Angeles and Culver City jurisdictions along with 12727 Washington Boulevard, Urbanize Los Angeles reported. 

The plans call for a six-story, 60-unit apartment building with one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments above parking for 55 vehicles. Of the 60 units, seven would be designated for rent as extremely low-income housing, which works out to approximately $35,000 annually for one person in Los Angeles County. In exchange for the affordable housing, the developer would benefit from density incentives that would permit a larger development than typically allowed by zoning regulations. 

Bastion’s plan increases the overall housing capacity it previously proposed for the site. The developer was approved by Culver City officials in 2022 and the City of Los Angeles in 2023 to erect two six-story buildings with 144 studio, one- and two-bedroom units above 19,100 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. The portion of the project slated for the Los Angeles part of the property has been updated with the latest application, while approvals for the Culver City piece remain in place until next April. 

In total, the revised plans for the Los Angeles side and the approved Culver City side comprise 164 residential units. 

Bastion has pursued projects in Culver City before. It received entitlements for the Haven apartment complex at 11924 Washington Boulevard, which was eventually completed by Cityview. Nearby at 11957 Washington Boulevard, Bastion built its Oliver mixed-use residential property. 

Both Los Angeles and Culver City face deadlines for housing planning at the turn of the decade. Los Angeles must entitle 456,643 new housing units, including 184,721 affordable residences, by 2029, while Culver City is on the hook for 3,341 new housing units, including 1,712 for lower-income households. 

— Chris Malone Méndez

Read more

Bastion Development plans another apartment complex on Culver City border

Bastion plans 139-unit project on doorstep of booming Culver City

LA ranks among top US cities building affordable housing: RentCafe

Whether it’s refining your business model, mastering new technologies, or discovering strategies to capitalize on the next market surge, Inman Connect New York will prepare you to take bold steps forward. The Next Chapter is about to begin. Be part of it. Join us and thousands of real estate leaders Jan. 22-24, 2025.

Progress in taming inflation slowed in October, but not to the extent that investors think a December Fed rate cut is off the table.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred measure of inflation showed annual growth in the price of goods and services moved away from the central bank’s 2 percent target in October.

At 2.3 percent, annual growth in the Personal Consumption Expenditures (PCE) price index was up from 2.1 percent in October, the Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Wednesday.

But bond market investors took the news in stride, as month-over-month inflation readings stayed in line with forecasts.

TAKE THE INMAN INTEL INDEX SURVEY FOR NOVEMBER

Yields on 10-year Treasury notes, a barometer for mortgage rates, dropped 6 basis points Wednesday, and futures markets tracked by the CME FedWatch tool show investors think the odds of a Dec. 18 rate cut have improved to 66 percent, up from 59 percent on Tuesday.

Uptick in annual inflation

Annual Core PCE, which excludes the cost of food and energy, rose to 2.8 percent in October, up from 2.7 percent in September and the highest reading since April.

The 0.2 percent and 0.3 percent month-over-month increases in the PCE and core PCE indexes were in line with forecasters’ expectations.

The “hefty” increase in core PCE was driven by big increases in some volatile components including used auto prices and airline fares, Pantheon Macroeconomics Chief U.S. Economist Samuel Tombs said, in a note to clients.

“Price pressures remained muted outside of these volatile sectors in October,” Tombs said, and other forward-looking indicators such as the jobs quits rate and a survey showing fewer businesses intend to raise prices “suggest that underlying services inflation will decline over the coming months.”

Forecasters at Pantheon Macroeconomics continue to think that the November PCE numbers will give the Fed “confidence to reduce the funds rate at a third straight meeting” next month, Tombs said.

The Bureau of Economic Analysis on Wednesday also released its second estimate of Q3 2024 gross domestic product (GDP), confirming an initial estimate that the economy grew at a healthy annual rate of 2.8 percent, down from 3.0 percent in Q2.

Healthy economic growth

While the economy slipped into negative growth in Q1 2022, stock market indexes continue to break records as investors gain confidence that the Fed can pull off a soft landing and avoid a recession, commonly defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

Get Inman’s Mortgage Brief Newsletter delivered right to your inbox. A weekly roundup of all the biggest news in the world of mortgages and closings delivered every Wednesday. Click here to subscribe.

Email Matt Carter

The Fannie Mae February Selling Guide has a series of updates, including the expansion of value acceptance and property data appraisal waivers to condominiums, cash-out refinance allowances for manufactured homes, and updates to credit references and certain definitions.

Following up on a March 2023 update that first announced value acceptance and property data as a substitute for traditional appraisals on certain single-unit properties, the new Selling Guide expands this data to cover condos.

On Dec. 1, 2023, the jointly development Uniform Property Dataset (UPD) for the government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) became active and included a data standard for condos, according to the Selling Guide. “This new dataset will replace our proprietary data standard on April 1, 2024. Note that lenders are still required to confirm the condo project is not ineligible in Condo Project Manager (CPM),” it explained.

The update also clarifies the qualifying interest rate for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs) with terms of 7 and 10 years, respectively.

“With this update, we are further clarifying that borrowers must be qualified using no less than the note rate for 7- and 10-year ARMs that are not high-priced mortgage loans or higher-priced covered transactions,” a change that goes into effect immediately.

The update allows cash-out refinance transactions for manufactured homes with terms of up to 30 years, adding 10 years to the allowable term under prior guidance. This rule is also effective immediately, although single-width manufactured homes remain ineligible for cash-out loans.

Fannie Mae added three new sources to its standards for “acceptable housing payments,” including rent fees paid to a landlord or property management company; privately held mortgage payments not reported to the credit bureaus, including “contract for deed payments and other similar arrangements,” as long as the payments are tied to the borrower’s residence; and real estate taxes.

It also clarified several income calculation and documentation requirements for borrowers who use business income to qualify, which “apply to self-employed borrowers and borrowers with less than a 25% interest in a business,” the update explained.

The agency updated and clarified property insurance requirements at the direction of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) to align with Freddie Mac policy, which says that “policies that limit, depreciate, reduce or otherwise settle losses at anything other than a replacement cost basis are […] not acceptable.”

And Fannie Mae clarified the “minimum required perils that a policy must cover [being] those found in a commercial ‘broad’ coverage form.” It removed outdated references to replacement costs and corresponding coverage, and it eliminated coinsurance requirements in order to “streamline the property insurance review process and to ensure that all project developments are reviewed for sufficient coverage.”

Lenders must be in compliance with these property insurance updates for all loans with application dates on or after June 1, 2024. Additional servicing guidance will be published in a new update that is expected on Feb. 14.

The new Selling Guide also updates various definitions related to retail mortgage origination, “to remove the references to joint ventures and voting shares,” the update stated. “Additionally, we added new language to the retail, third-party origination, broker and correspondent definitions to clarify that an affiliate, subsidiary, or parent company relationship with the mortgage seller are considered the same as the seller for the purposes of the definition of the origination type.”

Related