Saturday, September 7, 2024

May June 2024

“What you don’t have, and what’s required for collusion, is a horizontal agreement among competing property operators to all use that software and to delegate their rent setting authority to a third party. “From what I’ve seen, and from what we’ve been able to discern from the industry, there’s nothing like that happening,” said David Cross, a partner at San Francisco-based Morrison & Foerster’s antitrust litigation practice.

Multifamily faces antitrust litigation

With national elections around the corner, some of the nation’s largest apartment companies are facing antitrust litigation over usage of a product that has...
National rent control didn’t pan out, so in order to crack down on “big landlords who break antitrust laws by price-fixing and driving up rents,” the Biden administration’s latest scheme is to enlist the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission as antitrust enforcers. Such irony would be funny if this didn’t undermine the homes that the nation so desperately needs.

Monopolies, elections and power, oh my

Technology is engineered toward empowering individuals, not government. Therein lies the problem. From the Gutenberg press to automobiles to a networked world enabling people to...
PRO IN THE KNOW Runaway federal debt destabilizes resident incomes, interferes with housing production and depresses apartment rents

INFOGRAPHIC: Demoralization in 1 easy step

spend like there’s no tomorrow Runaway federal debt destabilizes resident incomes, interferes with housing production and depresses apartment rents (PRO IN THE KNOW) $35 trillion debtor Unrepentant,...
Disparate impact of high interest rates

INFOGRAPHIC: Disparate impact of high interest rates

Disparate impact of high interest rates has adversely impacted millions of low- and middle-income families—and housing providers. More often high interest rates depress stock...

INFOGRAPHIC: Appliance payoff models explode

^58 percent increase in requested quotes to thousands of appliance repair businesses y/y (2022-2023) ^43 percent increase in appliance spend in 2023 compared to 2013—rising...
Interest rates slow apartment development

INFOGRAPHIC: Interest rates slow apartment development

Rising interest rates, tighter lending and flattening rents in parts of the country have left property companies from California to Florida waiting for financing...
Plaintiffs argue that the Department of Energy has no legal authority to impose its own water use limits on energy-consuming home appliances.

Rules that make dishwashers, wash machines perform worse also illegal

Plaintiffs argue that the Department of Energy has no legal authority to impose its own water use limits on energy-consuming home appliances. The federal regulations...
Rent control still the wrong solution to housing woes

Rent control still the wrong solution to housing woes

Restricting the price of housing kills incentives to supply places to live. Rent control is having something of a moment: In Los Angeles, tenants are...
Present day Rockford Watch Company opened near the Rock River in Rockford, Illinois. the factory’s vivid history includes a number of contrasts: years of great prosperity followed by market competition and insolvency in 1896, followed by successful reorganization headed by Jacob Franks and Max C. Eppenstein in 1901. a fire in July, 1903, followed by a lightning strike in September, 1903, destroying the chimney, boiler house and large part of the machine room. Some months later lay-offs were announced. After producing nearly a million pocket watches, the factory closed in 1915.

Deal watch

Oliver Emerson Development, a father-son duo, wants to turn the former Rockford Watch Co. factory in Rockford, Illinois, into affordable housing. “To be able to...
A 2024 decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court in Players Place II Condominium Association, Inc. v. K.P. applied federal and state law and provides important guidance for an HOA to avoid a housing discrimination claim.

How to assess a resident’s request for an emotional support animal

Multifamily housing providers are faced with increasing requests from residents with disabilities for emotional support animals (ESA). Requests for ESAs are generating more enforcement...
High interest rates have stranded the owners of overleveraged apartment properties worth billions of dollars.

Investors circle overleveraged apartments

Rescue capital is available for apartment borrowers that need it, but relatively few owners of over-leveraged apartment properties are willing to pay the price—so...
The $10 billion fund from Starwood Capital Group has been trying to preserve its available cash and credit by limiting investor redemptions. In the first quarter, the fund was hit with $1.3 billion in withdrawal requests but satisfied less than $500 million of them, according to regulatory filings.

The incredible disappearing Starwood CRE investor

The $10 billion fund from Starwood Capital Group has been trying to preserve its available cash and credit by limiting investor redemptions. In the...
Gables 12 Twenty One in the Rosslyn submarket of Arlington, Virginia

Bozzuto acquires Gables property

Over the last decade and a half, it has made much more sense for Bozzuto to build rather than buy apartments. However, as it...
One of the pivotal court decisions behind the expansion of the administrative state was the 1984 ruling in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council.

Lawyers take big government to the Supreme Court

“We all get to vote, but the ability to make legislation is no longer in the hands of the people we elect,” Columbia law...
The U.S. Supreme Court justices return to the bench the second week of June to issue opinions in argued cases. The court has somewhere around 28 decisions left to release before it begins its summer recess.

Major U.S. Supreme Court decisions coming down the track MAJOR UPDATE

June 28, 2024 Update: The Supreme Court in an unprecedented victory for multifamily and other businesses, has today reversed its 40-year-old decision in Chevron...
Why Johnny can’t build

Why Johnny can’t build

We were once a nation of builders—from the toll roads and canals of the early nineteenth century and the railroads of the second half...
There’s no doubt that we are more distracted than ever in our age of screens. Everything from the latest news on social media to our favorite movie to online shopping is only a few clicks away.

Creating habits in an age of distraction

There’s no doubt that we are more distracted than ever in our age of screens. Everything from the latest news on social media to...
Economics and the hidden order

Economics and the hidden order

The “real world” is calling. But the real world is a real mess. So how do we clean up the mess? That’s a massive...
Market demand sets stage for few rent hikes

Market demand sets stage for few rent hikes

While asking rents for new leases nationally are running nearly flat over the past 12 months, those figures are heavily influenced by the Sunbelt,...
Rents fall behind inflation

Rents fall behind inflation

Tracking rents is important for understanding the dynamics of the housing market. For example, the sharp increase in rents helped me deduce that there...
With the rhetoric around “return-to-office” finally behind us, it’s clear that 2024 will be another watershed year in which how we engage with work environments is redefined again. As CEO of a leading proptech company, I connect with C-level executives and workplace experts daily, discussing the forces that will continue to reshape the world of work in 2024.

Seven trends reshaping the workplace

Where and how we work has changed a lot in the past several years. Collectively, we’ve experienced some of the most significant and far-reaching changes...
Empower’s new study found that Americans spend 2.5 hours a day, or 873 hours per year, modern-day window shopping and gazing at dream purchases.

Are you dreamscrolling? Three ways to gain control

Beth Martin may be a designer in Charleston, South Carolina, but, in her head, she is in the south of France, touring a 1700s...
L.A. homeless tower building cost rings bells

L.A. homeless tower building cost rings bells

Gym, balconies, restaurant, soundproof music studio, business center, located in downtown Los Angeles, and it’s pet friendly. Sounds like a pretty good hotel, four-stars at...

Office to apartments

download pdf Hybrid work is likely here to stay. This shift isn’t just changing lifestyles—it’s also affecting commercial spaces. Office vacancy rates post-COVID shot up...
The sticky combination of heat and high humidity

The sticky combination of heat and high humidity

Extreme weather alerts in a community communications program is an operational baseline. Extreme weather warnings can help residents understand their risk and protect themselves,...

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