The world of smart electric grids and meters: What’s in it for you?
What is smart infrastructure?
Electric smart meters and smart grids have critical features not present in typical distribution systems today, which can be put to use to improve service and lower costs for customers.
The...
Renters are richer, older, and have larger households
It’s a perfect storm for raising rental costs: low vacancy rates not seen in decades, an influx of high-income renters, constraints on building new apartments and homes, and the disappearance of low-cost rental units.
A...
When Washington bureaucrats hold the reins of power
The Biden administration was in a box in late July. They desperately wanted to extend the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s controversial eviction moratorium. But the judicial writing was on the wall. They...
Not picture perfect
It turns out that an online image he liked, downloaded and integrated into his new marketing campaign was a copyrighted, fully-staged photo by one very famous photographer out of New York City.
Petrified and embarrassed,...
Not your father’s senior living
If she needs it, she has round-the-clock phone access to a home health care agency that can handle emergencies, bring in doctors and help residents navigate the medical system.
Though recent changes at the building...
Unintended consequences
The fact is, President Obama has caused us to care.
Gallup recently reported that Americans are paying closer attention to political news than during any non-election year since the company began tracking the issue in...
Canceling rent won’t solve housing woes
As Americans stagger through a bewildering pandemic summer, buffeted by shutdowns and job losses, millions face each coming month with an additional dread: making their rent payments.
In response to the crisis, numerous states and...
A house becoming more divided
Consider foreclosure-ravaged Detroit. In the historic Green Acres district, a haven for hipsters, a pristine, three-bedroom brick Tudor recently sold for $6,000—about what a buyer would have paid during the Great Depression.
Yet just 15...
Home Builders urge Fannie, Freddie to get behind mixed-use
The mortgage giants currently require that projects they finance be no more than 25 percent commercial (20 percent for Fannie and for multifamily HUD projects.) The intention is that these lenders remain true to...
Business as unusual
As cities, counties and states begin loosening lockdown orders and allowing non-essential businesses to open, apartment owners are weighing strategies to ride out the economic disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and finding slivers...
Winning the big data game
Tech insiders whisper about big data as if it is the pandora's box of the future, and everyone wants to be prepared to take advantage of its value. Many are familiar with the basic...
Time is not on the side of the unemployed
In recent months, employers have stepped up hiring, layoffs have slowed and the unemployment rate has begun to fall more quickly. But the rosier picture hasn't been a boon to everyone without a job....
The envelope please.
The dynamic, edgy look with lots of steel and glass, concrete and brick, variations of color and texture and dramatic features like bays of different depths, overhangs, staggered roof lines and building heights and...
AI that actually works for multi-dwelling operations
Like many, you probably have tech at home. As an early adopter, I’m acutely aware that it’s more a hobby than a tried and true form of security, energy management or automation. The electricity...
