Fannie and Freddie: cool heads prevail warn regulators
The mortgage buyers, now controlled by the government, and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are "facing challenging times," the agency's head Edward DeMarco told a congressional panel.
Republican lawmakers are leading efforts to...
Back to basics
Over the years since George Lane founded the multifamily company in Atlanta, its platform has grown to include development, investment, asset and property management, renovation and construction of a wide variety of apartments, condos...
A small landlord’s cry: Why is the government violating my property rights?
I am a small landlord, and the government has put me and millions of other small landlords through hell for the past 18 months. Politicians always say they support small business, but they rarely...
Landlords rule
"We are riding a monster wave that has a long way to go before getting to shore," said Camden Property Trust CEO Ric Campo in his introduction to the apartment REIT's Q1 2012 conference...
Making Disparate Impact deliver fairness
HUD’s proposed revisions to our disparate-impact rule enhance our commitment to fairness for everyone.
Everyone agrees that discrimination has no place in society. But everyone also agrees that a city should be able to require...
The value of a road
A growing movement of local governments and communities across the United States is beginning to grapple with an unfortunate realization: The highway boom of the 1950s and ‘60s produced a massive amount of infrastructure...
Everything’s brand new in… D.C.?
The code now permits light-framed buildings of wood or steel, which are often faster and less expensive to build than equivalent heavy-framed structures, to reach eight stories and up to 85-ft. high—just shy of...
Beat the market performance
Consider what ROI you need to initiate retrofits. With banks paying 1 to 3 percent, and stocks showing 8 percent to 10 percent, what ROIs can you anticipate with water and energy retrofits? During...
Room service
See if this sounds familiar. You’ve got a marquee property, great management, and a well-recognized brand, but attracting and converting prospects is a non-stop job of cutting through the online static, only to hopefully...
Builders gonna build
The global pandemic didn’t stop developers from planning new apartments projects—often in smaller, quickly growing metro areas. The boom in apartment construction that began around 2015 barely slowed down in 2020, despite a global...
Glory days of opportunity
It's good to note that no matter how intellectual a person, the irony is that most decisions are ultimately made by intuition. In the final light, it's how CEOs run companies, how managers manage...
Influencers and high tide
Family and friends? Business associates? The Kardashians?
Who is your voice of reason?
After viewing the video and examining the DNA according to CSI protocol, it appears that those closely-held beliefs that we call truth may...
It’s good to be king
I sometimes wonder if landlords aren't single-handedly holding this economy together. And after reading Peggy Shaw's cover story, "Landlords Rule," I would almost bet the farm that we do.
Except that the farm isn't worth...
HUD and gays
HUD has unveiled a series of proposed rule changes that would prohibit lenders from using sexual orientation or gender identity as a way of determining a borrower's eligibility.
The rule change would state that eligible...
The rights glut
I was asked recently whether I thought same-sex parents had the “right” to adopt. I said that I didn’t think anyone had a “right” to adopt.
We decide who should adopt on the basis of...
