Apartment Look

LOS ANGELES , Aug. 22, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $1,000 more expensive in San Francisco than it is in New York , a new study found. Personal finance website GOBankingRates examined 50 major cities across the U.S. to identify the cost of a one-bedroom apartment. In addition to median rent prices , the study analyzed key factors including the cost of basic utilities and each city's walkability score. GOBankingRates also identified the percentage of apartments for rent in each city with the following amenities: dishwashers, washer-dryers, pools, fitness centers, parking garages and pet-friendly policies.  For full study results and more details on methodology, visit: Here's What an Average Apartment Costs in 50 US Cities ...

Occasionally I have to put off paying a bill, but I've never had trouble buying food for my family. On a recent Saturday afternoon , I met a lot of Anchorage neighbors who do. The Anchorage East Rotary Club invited me to its  Mobile Food Pantry giveaway . I thought I'd be writing about the Rotarians. I knew many of the two dozen business people and retirees behind the tables, friends I've often met at functions and meetings. I guess they're just like me. I thought the people on the other side of the tables with shopping bags and luggage carts would be the destitute poor or victims of temporary emergencies. I discovered they were just like me, too. A shocking number of the Alaskans who work full-time jobs cannot afford food and routinely humble themselves at these giveaways of browning grocery store produce and baked goods on the verge of staleness, despite putting in many hours on the job. I met a young Alaska Native man who loads cargo on the ramp...

Mainstreet Equity (OTC:OTC:MEQYF) is an under-the-radar residential apartment owner/operator in Western Canada . Despite a market cap of $325m (all figures Canadian ), it often sees volume of less than 1000 shares a day on the TSX where it trades under the MEQ ticker. The recent investor presentation (July 2017) gives a brief snapshot of the properties Mainstreet controls . It's important to note that Mainstreet is well away from the frothier markets in Canadian real estate , both geographically and in terms of price point. The average apartment it owns is valued at just marginally more than $100k with an average monthly rent of just $864. These are solidly middle class , leaning lower middle class , properties. The company is focused on rolling up what they view as smaller, underperforming buildings, often ones that have fallen into significant disrepair, are being managed by inexperienced and/or unprofessional owners, and giving them a makeover, with some recent examples fr...

When it comes to condominium development , Cascadia’s two largest cities couldn ’t be more different. Last year nearly 60 percent of new housing starts in the city of Vancouver, BC , were condominiums; meanwhile, Seattle saw no new condominium buildings open . And that’s not changing anytime soon: less than 10 percent of all building slated for downtown Seattle in the next three years will be condos. What’s the difference—why the blossoming of condominium construction in one city and the almost complete dearth in the other? The short answer is economics. In Vancouver, apartments are saddled with an unfavorable tax code , making condos the more lucrative multi- family housing investment even despite high rental demand . In Seattle’s skyrocketing rental market , one that’s climbed even faster than the condo market in recent years, apartment buildings are much more financially attractive, while condos come with bigger risks and, typically, lower returns. Compounding this profit differe...

At the end of one sticky month during the summer of 2017, Elizabeth Bolles will have finished packing the contents of her Riverbend apartment. She, her partner, their two young sons and two dogs will then pile into her Subaru and drive 350 miles to Houston, where her partner will start a new job.   The move is the upshot of six years of frustration and disappointment for Bolles since she graduated from Tulane University's law school in 2011. Since then, she's struggled to find a well-paying job in New Orleans; she's been runner-up for several positions and has worked odd jobs and short-term gigs to make ends meet . She's in the same boat as many of her friends and acquaintances in the city — a one- time National Merit Scholar who's been waiting tables for a decade, a buddy with two doctorates who can't find a professional job .   "You hear one person's story," Bolles says, "and you think maybe there's something going on with them, maybe...