Apartment Choice

Coast to coast, the housing industry currently favors the home seller as prices are rising, sales surging and inventories dwindling -- which leave the residences on the market more valuable. Take Seattle as a caffeinated example. The northwest city of 3. 5 million people boasts the hottest housing market in the country since last fall, according to the Case- Shiller home price index and reported this summer in the Seattle Times. The typical single-family house in metro Seattle cost 12 .9 percent more in April than a year ago, the report notes. Other fast-rising markets are Portland, Oregon; Dallas; Denver; and Detroit, up 9.3 to 7.4 percent respectively. Those totals compare with a 5. 5 percent national price growth rate . What's good for owners and well-off buyers can be doubly troubling for at least one group: lower income property shoppers including first-time homebuyers who can't afford average and midpoint home prices or apartment rents . According to studies, the na...

Climate Change, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Energy, Environment, Global Governance, Headlines, North America, Poverty & SDGs Enrique Gili* - IPS/IFEJ POWAY, California, Oct 26 2007 (IPS) - Mary Jane Jagodzinzki nervously anticipated the arrival of a busload of building professionals . As it turned out, she needn&#39t have been too concerned. Solara green housing project in Poway, California. Credit: Enrique Gili/IPS" src="http://www.ipsnews.net/Library/solara_final.jpg" alt=" Solara green housing project in Poway, California. Credit: Enrique Gili/IPS" width="200" height="150" /> Solara green housing project in Poway, California. Credit: Enrique Gili/IPS Forty or so camera-toting architects, project managers and contractors arrived en masse in the bedroom community of Poway, north of San Diego, part of a green building tour showcasing a pioneering apartment complex that's saving money and helping the pl...

A decade after the crash, Shannon Valley housing estate , on the outskirts of Ballaghaderreen, in Co Roscommon, remains unfinished and partly in ruins. Although the number of “ unfinished housing developments ” has fallen sharply since 2010, Shannon Valley is one of hundreds that still dot the country. The Guls: ‘Every day I put rats in the bin’ Fatima Gul says her little brother, Yousaf, doesn’t like the rats. He jumps up on the sofa or the table in the living room when they come into the house. Their parents don’t allow Fatimar, who is 10, or her nine-year-old sister, Maryam, or Yousaf and his twin, Zohra, who are five, to play near the houses on the other side of their green. It’s too close to the rats and the rubble. Shannon Valley “ ghost estate ” outside Ballaghaderreen, Co Roscommon. Photograph: Simon Carswell" height="349" src="https://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_fs/1.3181475!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg" width="620...

Capitol Hill is best known for the eponymous domed building that symbolizes American democracy . But the large neighborhood, which spans the quadrants of Northeast and Southeast, has a lot more going on than legislative dealings. Here are 10 facts about the neighborhood that don’t show up on your average double- decker bus tour . 1. It Was Not Always Called Capitol Hill According to Architect of the Capitol, an organization that maintains the grounds and many of the neighborhood's government buildings , when city architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant found the area in the early 1790s, it was known as Jenkins' Hill. That didn't last much longer. L'Enfant proclaimed it "a pedestal waiting for a monument," and construction atop Capitol Hill began in 1793. The US Capitol Building is located at East Capitol St NE and First St SE. 2. Christ Church (Not the Cathedral) Is the City’s Oldest Episcopal Church The National Cathedral is one of the most famous churches...

Apartment rents grew the most in Baytown among Texas cities for a one-year period through July, though it remained one of the lowest priced markets in the Houston area, a new report showed. The median price of a two-bedroom unit in Baytown reached $850 in July, a 10.9 percent jump over July 2014, according to the July Texas Rental Price Monitor by Apartment List . Apartment List , an apartment rental marketplace based in San Francisco, compiles the data from several hundred thousand listings it has on its site. Demand for housing in Baytown and other communities on the east side of Houston is being driven by major expansions of petrochemical plants in the region. Curiously, a one-bedroom unit in Baytown costs more than a two-bedroom unit. One-bedrooms rented for $1,150 in July after a 14.6 percent year-over-year rise, according to the report. Alvin had the second highest rate hike in the Houston region, with rents rising 9 .9 percent year-over-year to $830 for a two-bedroom unit. ...