Birth of a builder
Christmas makes me think of builders. It celebrates, among other supernatural events, the birth of a carpenter who apprenticed in the family business. Once grounded in the principles of earthly construction he went on...
Apartment boom boosts adaptive re-use
New renters are signing leases and moving into 109 luxury apartments at The Arden, an old office building that re-opened as a new multifamily community in the Koreatown neighborhood of Los Angeles, in August...
Trends likely to sustain BFR sector growth
Institutional investors have been increasingly interested in the build-for-rent (BFR) space over the last five years. But the pandemic poured gasoline on an asset class that offers residents space, privacy and the flexibility of...
Best cities for multifamily, 2022
National multifamily occupancy rates are at record levels, with markets across the country seeing a strong increase in rents. According to RealPage, nationwide effective rents have increased 8.3 percent, the greatest gain since 2010....
PropTech—cutting-edge tools and technologies
In an age of digital transformation where technology is being applied to every area in every industry across the globe, it’s no surprise that the commercial real estate (CRE) and multifamily housing property management...
Three benefits that could come from the Metaverse
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently announced the long anticipated new branding of the Facebook umbrella corporation, which includes Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, WhatsApp, and Quest. “We just announced that we are making a fundamental change...
Newest multifamily amenity: Community
If you asked someone searching for an apartment what they are looking for, they would likely tell you about things like upgraded appliances, easy access to transit, or an onsite gym. They might not...
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,...
