Apartment Choice

18 Aug 2017, 09:44 In 2007, I lived in a one- bedroom apartment , wasn’t married, had no kids, no pets, was an outright retail planner working almost exclusively on a range of Tesco projects, and had a respectable hairline. Come 2017, I cannot claim any of that to be true, writes Sebastian Tibenham , executive director at Pegasus Group. I’m married, have two kids, three pets, work across a range of development sectors , my retail client, now Asda, makes up just 10% of my workload. Am I happier and more sustained at work and at home? Yes! Why? Diversification. Not only is diversification important in running a business, and experiencing day to day life, it is vital for our towns, cities, the economy and our industries. Unfortunately, the planning industry in the North West, and particularly the housing sector, a fundamental industry within our economy, was too targeted and not sufficiently diverse in 2007 to recover quickly from the deep recession. Throughout 2007/8, the proportion ...

By Beth Jacobi The recommendations of the Bend 2030 housing workgroup , recently offered to Bend City Council , may not ease the housing burden of many of the people who live and work in Bend. The recommendations are designed to increase housing for those making $40,000 to $90,000 a year. But according to the Oregon Housing Alliance , the current mean renter wage in Deschutes County is $11.86 an hour (about $24,000 a year). Many tourism industry workers , teachers, police officers, health care workers , social service workers , and families with children are suffering from our housing crisis. Bend leads the nation for rent increases. Bend’s average home sales price is over $400,000, and homelessness has gone up 31 percent since 2015 (Point in Time Count, 2017). The Bend 2030 housing workgroup has some great ideas, but the recommendations don’t ensure the development of affordable housing . City leaders must reserve valuable subsidies and incentives, ( property tax waiver , system ...

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...

Designed by KTGY Group, 2525 El Camino Real Senior Apartments , a development by ROEM Corporation , in collaboration with Pacific Housing , Inc. and the City of Santa Clara, broke ground on a new affordable apartment community for low income seniors . 2525 El Camino Real Senior Apartments in Santa Clara, CA" title=" 2525 El Camino Real Senior Apartments in Santa Clara, CA" width="154" height="87" class="im2" /> 2525 El Camino Real Senior Apartments in Santa Clara, CA June 21, 2012 - PRLog -- SANTA CLARA, CA - On Wednesday, June 20, 2012, Santa Clara broke ground on 2525 El Camino Real Senior Apartments , a development by ROEM Corporation , in collaboration with Pacific Housing , Inc. and the City of Santa Clara. The groundbreaking ceremony began at 2:00 p.m. at 2525 El Camino Real , Santa Clara, California 95050 (cross streets: El Camino Real and Buchanan Drive). " Providing affordable housing for our community is a very im...

INDUSTRY GE delays opening of new building in Fort Point General Electric Co. has pushed back the expected opening of its new building overlooking Fort Point Channel by two years after deciding to break the headquarters project into two phases. GE vice president Ann Klee said in a memo Tuesday to Boston employees that executives expect the 12- story building , dubbed South Point , to open in mid-2021, compared with an earlier goal of 2019. Two older brick buildings , together dubbed North Point , will be renovated first, with the aim of opening them in the first half of 2019. GE has already started work on the two old buildings, originally part of a Necco candy manufacturing complex . But construction on the new building was supposed to happen concurrently with much of the Necco renovations. Now, GE will finish the Necco buildings and move employees into them before starting construction of the new building. GE expects it will take 24 months to complete the new structure. The ann...

Orlando will soon have a new community down near Disney — the Four Seasons Private Residences — where home prices start around $5 million. Bully for all our new neighbors ... and the $24,514 in homeowner’s association fees they’ll pay each year. Ironically, though, many of the people who already live here — the ones who work full-time in the tourist industry that attracts the Four Seasons folks — can’t afford homes of their own. Heck, they can’t even cover the HOA dues. Central Florida , you see, is in the midst of an all-out housing crisis . Our affordable- housing shortage is so severe that the National Low Income Housing Coalition recently found just 18 rental units available for every 100 low- income families — one of the lowest rates in America. As a result, we have families living in cheap motels and relying on government subsidies. And with rents rising, it’s only getting worse. This isn’t exactly the kind of thing our chambers of commerce or visitors bureaus like to promo...

by Lynda Carson Oakland – On March 3, the same day that Oakland tenant activists filed a ballot initiative to strengthen renter protections called the “Renters Upgrade,” the California Apartment Association (CAA) announced that they were keeping an eye on things and are coming up with their own plan to counter the tenant’s movement efforts somehow, including in Richmond and Alameda. Tenants fight gentrification as apartment buildings are flipped and rents raised in Highland Park, Los Angeles. – Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez , LA Times" /> Tenants fight gentrification as apartment buildings are flipped and rents raised in Highland Park, Los Angeles. – Photo: Michael Robinson Chavez , LA Times The CAA announced to its 13,000 members, affiliates and partners: “Tenant advocates in Richmond and Alameda have filed preliminary paperwork to place rent control initiatives on the November ballot. In both East Bay cities , the initiative efforts are in the early stages, and in...

By Paul Norman - Friday, August 18, 2017 9:04 Global rental housing company Greystar has announced the appointment of Mark Allnutt to head operations in the UK, replacing Jeff Manno who is returning to the US to lead Portfolio Management for the new Greystar Growth and Income Fund. As UK business lead , Mark Allnutt will oversee 200 plus London-based staff and a property portfolio which includes student housing and multifamily rental accommodation across the country. Allnutt has been tasked with increasing Greystar’s UK multifamily portfolio to 10,000 units within four years and growing its student housing portfolio to position the company as one of the country’s largest owners and operators of rental housing . He joined Greystar in 2014 to launch the company’s multifamily business in London. Subsequently Greystar’s development pipeline has grown to over 2,750 units with a value of £1.5bn and the company has been involved in several of the largest propert...

Draft Scope of Work for the Inwood Rezoning Proposal A map from the Draft Scope of Work indicating red projected development sites (most likely) and blue potential development sites (less likely) by the year 2032. The de Blasio administration predicts its proposed rezoning of Inwood will stimulate the creation of 4,348 new apartments by 2032, of which a portion would be rent-restricted under the city’s mandatory inclusionary housing policy , according to a city document released last Friday. The rezoning is also expected to create 1,135,032 square feet of commercial space, 472,685 square feet of community facility space , and result in a loss of 50,614 square feet of industrial space. To give a sense of the scale, there are more apartments anticipated in the East New York rezoning area , but fewer in the downtown Far Rockaway rezoning area . The document in question is the rezoning’s Draft Scope of Work, which describes the details of the proposal, projects the rezoning’s develop...

SUBHEAD: The Texas capital plan for sustainability does not include some minority neighborhoods. By Raj Mankad on 15 August 2017 for Grist - (https://grist.org/article/the-newer-greener-houston-isnt-for-everybody/) Image above: In some cases, little more than a fence separates Manchester homes from neighboring fossil fuel industry . Photo by Paul Hester. From original article. Juan Parras gives one hell of a tour of Houston’s east side. He’s charming and funny. Wearing a beret, he strikes an old-world look, like he might lead you to a cafe on a plaza. He doesn’t charge a fee for his services. After all, you’re on a “toxic tour,” and Parras is on a mission. Parras grew up in 1950s West Texas . He remembers segregated schools, the restaurants that wouldn’t serve him, the unpaved roads, and the people who lived closest to the local refinery. Those experiences led him to a career as a social justice advocate . The resident of Houston’s heavily industrial east side has worked in a ci...