The ever-prescient landlord
In August 2016, Seattle, Wash., a city where the U.S. Census bureau estimates that 48 percent of the population are renters, the city council revised its open housing ordinance to include “first-in-time, first-in-line” provisions....
The unexpected solution to America’s affordable housing crunch: the urban movement
The ones currently doing the kicking are the YIMBYs, a loosely allied collection of pro-development housing advocates whose name plays on the acronym NIMBY (“Not In My Backyard”), replacing the “Not” with an emphatic...
Welcome to paradise
Anant Yardi faced such a dilemma in the early 80s while living in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he worked as a software developer for Burroughs, a business equipment manufacturer (Burroughs merged with Sperry Univac...
Gunfight at the Airbnb coral
That means Airbnb and others must stick to advertising San Francisco hosts who have registered with the city and haven’t exceeded the number of nights they’re allowed to rent. The penalty? Platforms can be...
Getting inside multifamily’s utility management operation
“In many states we’re seeing an increase in the trend to mandate submetering for any residential and commercial new building construction. Around eight states already have the law in place, up from around three...
The camel that had no hump
This especially irritates Rob Pressman, the principal of Burbank, Calif.-based TGP, Inc. Landscape Architecture, who believes that aesthetics do not have to be discarded for the sake of sustainability.
Multifamily developers employ landscape architects like...
Paradise lost
San Francisco has topped the list of every national rental report since Zumper began publishing them in August 2014, and was named the most expensive city in the U.S. years before that. The rapid...
West coast story
“It’s a great time to own apartments on the West Coast,” said Essex President and CEO Michael Schall during his company’s presentation at the Citiglobal Property CEO conference held this March in Hollywood, Fla.,...
Sares Regis expands portfolio
The new acquisitions total 300 apartments in Portland and North County San Diego, and for a portfolio of eight properties totaling 1,220 apartments out of the fund formed last year. The fund was initially...
I can’t get no
One person, Arie Shashou, 77, thought just that. That was before Shashou received an eviction notice in March. Shashou’s $825-a-month rent-controlled apartment, and 17 other units, will be demolished to make way for a...
A bright idea
Ashoff manufactures fluorescent lamps with motion sensors. He designed it to replace bulbs in building stairwells which burn around the clock, and found that they slash energy costs for stairwell lighting by 97 percent....
Uptown, turnaround Jerry Brown
On a coast filled with dreamy, seaside cities, Oakland is more like a Midwestern industrial town dropped far from home. Mayor Brown points out, “most of the people who work downtown, live elsewhere. They...
