The urgency of protecting the electric grid from cyberattacks
Multifamily owners and operators are the single largest dispenser of utilities in the nation. An electric grid failure would be catastrophic for operations and to residents, many of whom currently work from home. The clock...
The great migration
The future of the apartment industry looks bright. Demand for rental homes is strong, rent growth has returned to pre-pandemic levels and renters who fled major cities in 2020 are showing renewed interest in...
The case for optimism
Clarity of purpose guides the path forward in every time and every place. Whether in life, business or country, we will be neither the first, nor the last, to face adversity. Whether we despair...
A cautionary housing tale
Can society be designed? Can an expert engineer alleviate people’s pains and struggles with a good-enough central plan and blueprint? Minoru Yamasaki thought so. Yamasaki was one of America’s most well-respected architects in the 20th century...
Operations enter time-space continuum
Fast, reliable, wireless internet service is not only a nice amenity for residents, it can also cure a long list of headaches for apartment companies. Over the last ten years, a revolution has slowly spread...
It’s back.
In late August, the Supreme Court struck down the Centers for Disease Control’s so-called “eviction moratorium.” The justices ruled that the federal agency did not have the legal authority to unilaterally extend a prohibition...
How to make housing affordable
An old joke goes as follows: Patient to doc: “Doc, it hurts when I do this.” Doctor to patient: “Quit doing that.” That joke applies to the issue of affordable housing. Many people talk about what governments...
What happened in 1971?
Something huge happened in 1971. And both Edward Snowden and Jack Dorsey are asking the same question. In mid-August, Twitter Founder and CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted a strange hashtag: #WTFHappenedin1971. A few weeks later, Edward Snowden,...
What if they opened the office and nobody came?
For months, corporate hegemons, real estate brokers and their media acolytes have been insisted that a return to “normalcy,” that is, to the office, was imminent. Some companies threatened to reduce the incomes of...
Afghan refugees face U.S. housing crunch
Refugee aid groups are scrambling to find permanent homes for the thousands of Afghan evacuees expected to settle in the Washington, D.C. region in the coming months, a steep challenge in one of the...
Small answers big problems
The Biden administration is taking steps to address a severe housing shortage in the U.S. by creating and selling 100,000 affordable homes over the next three years using existing funds, the White House said...
Careening for disaster
President Biden and progressive allies are advancing a historic $4.5+ trillion spending plan that would vastly expand the government’s reach into climate change, welfare policy, and just about everything else in between. To “pay...
Ghost in the machine
A video posted by a real estate agent in Las Vegas—claiming a company was pulling off a convoluted scheme to manipulate housing prices—has gone viral. Runaway home prices are fueling angst on social media over...
Rental unit bidding wars
It’s not uncommon to hear about bidding wars for homes in today’s housing market. But “leasing wars” for rental units are popping up in some cities as demand for multifamily housing remains high. Matt Scott,...
What’s driving up rent prices?
In a year when people have yearned for a return to normal, the rental market has been anything but. Not only are rent prices rising, they are rising tremendously fast and rising virtually everywhere. According...
