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...

Fairfield Housing Authority , and Peggy Ford, the authority's resident service coordinator , hold a rendering of buildings proposed to replace the existing units at the Pine Tree Lane housing complex . Photo: Andrew Brophy / Fairfield Citizen" class="landscape" /> Pine Tree Lane housing complex that would be demolished under plans by the Fairfield Housing Authority to rebuild and expand the development. Photo: Andrew Brophy / Fairfield Citizen" class="landscape" src="src" /> Fairfield Housing Authority , and Peggy Ford, the authority's resident service coordinator , hold a rendering of buildings proposed to replace the existing units at the Pine Tree Lane housing complex ." src="src" /> Pine Tree Lane housing complex that would be demolished under plans by the Fairfield Housing Authority to rebuild and expand the development." src="src" /> Photo: Andrew Brophy Image 1 of / 2 Caption Close...

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...

Residents check out the plans for a 294- unit apartment complex on Nixon Road at a meeting Tuesday night at the Traverwood Branch Library in Ann Arbor. Ryan J. Stanton | AnnArbor.com Neighbors of a proposed 294- unit apartment complex at Nixon Road and M-14 say they're concerned about adding more traffic to an already congested area. "It's hell right now," said Cathy Baker , who lives in the Barclay Park condominiums and says traffic regularly backs up on Nixon Road during rush hour. About two dozen residents attended a citizen participation meeting hosted by the developer Tuesday night at the Traverwood Branch Library in Ann Arbor. A map of the site location provided by the developer. Traffic repeatedly came up as a main concern with the project. Residents who live in neighboring apartments and condominiums said they're particularly worried about worsening traffic backups where Nixon Road meets Green and Dhu Varren roads — an unconventional four-w...

Damien Bash owns a four-bedroom home, built in 1898, in Philadelphia's historic Germantown section . It features intricate stonework , hardwood floors and 19th century architectural details . Bash is offering the place to visitors attending Pope Francis ' first U.S. visit — for the weeklong World Meeting of Families gathering in downtown Philadelphia in September. His asking price? $15,000 for the week, or $2,142 a night for seven nights. How did he arrive at that figure? "I saw what everybody else was asking," he said. Opportunism seems to have gripped the Philadelphia area, where some residents are asking up to $30,000 a week to rent their homes and apartments to papal visitors. Through ads on Craigslist and Airbnb, they're betting that 1.5 million to 2 million people flooding a city of 1.5 million will produce a lucrative real-estate payday. I'm not being greedy -- I'll listen to anyone who offers me a price that's affordable for them. — Jackie S...

The 155- unit Ann Arbor City Apartments is under construction on West Washington and South First streets in downtown Ann Arbor . Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com Editor's note: The number of parking spaces to be held by Village Green has been corrected. Related story: Rent comparison : What can you get for $2,500 a month around Ann Arbor? Luxury apartments in downtown Ann Arbor are no longer just for students. The under-construction Ann Arbor City Apartments on the southeast corner of West Washington and South First streets is the first luxury apartment project built downtown in years that doesn’t cater to students. It’s designed for young professional renters as well as corporate relocation. "It's midway between the YMCA and the core of downtown where U-M jobs are," said Susan Pollay , executive director of Ann Arbor's Downtown Development Authority . "I think it feels like, from what I saw, exactly one of the things needed in this marketplace." ...