Apartment Choice

Changing face of real estate SYDNEY’S hipster culture has been shifting to suburbia as penny- pinching young people abandon more inner city suburbs like Newtown and Surry Hills to buy in cheaper outlying areas or move back in with their parents. An analysis of census data has revealed traditionally family -friendly suburbs such as Gordon, Lindfield, Rodd Point and Eastwood had among Sydney’s biggest spikes in the population of 25-35-year-olds over the past five years. This was despite no major changes to rental or property demand or natural population increase . Hipsters are leaving Newtown. And moving in with their parents. Analysts instead attributed the rise in young adults moving out of the city to a trend in which many were returning to their family homes to help save money. With average weekly room rents within 5km of the CBD at $350 and apartment rents at $650, those who moved back in with their parents could save about $18,000 or more per year. Other suburbs with a signific...

A Long Island research group is urging local governments to consider allowing more rental apartments in private homes, to help cash-strapped homeowners and provide more housing for renters. In a report released Saturday , the Long Island Index outlines the vast differences in the ways Long Island ’s towns, cities and villages deal with so- called accessory apartments , or small units within owner-occupied homes. Most Popular The approaches range from fairly accepting — as in the Town of Babylon, where homeowners can get permits to rent out apartments if they meet certain conditions — to strict, as in the Town of North Hempstead , where such units can only be occupied by the homeowner’s parent or child. Long Island has a patchwork of rules for accessory apartments , which vary so widely that many homeowners fear getting penalized, so they don’t even try to create apartments, even if they want to and might be allowed, said Nancy Rauch Douzinas , publisher of the Index. The Index is a...

Saying they were there to do work, the four talked their way inside the apartment. They walked around, as if inspecting the place, but provided only vague answers to the residents’ questions before one stranger turned to the others. “Do you want to do this now or another time?” he asked. “I’m ready,” another said. With that, they attacked — the beginning of 11 terrifying hours for a family tied up and held captive overnight in their Silver Spring , Md., apartment, according to court documents filed in Montgomery County. Police say five intruders entered this Silver Spring apartment building Aug . 1 and held a family captive all night. The family was targeted, police say, because at least one of the intruders knew that a woman at the apartment worked at a check- cashing store; holding her at knifepoint, the intruders demanded she turn over store keys and an alarm code. On Monday, the final suspect charged in the home invasion — the four initial attackers allegedly were join...