Apartment Look

Six years ago, Mike Brown and Casey Lynch stood on Downtown Boise ’s 8th Street and wondered: Why don’t more people live here? Downtown seemed to have everything that a growing percentage of Americans wanted in a place to live. “I mean, there’s all kinds of jobs. There’s a million coffee shops and hair salons and restaurants, and there’s an active street life ,” says Brown, who founded the Los Angeles- based development company LocalConstruct with Lynch in 2008. Casey Lynch, left, and Mike Brown have made their mark in Boise. Provided by LocalConstruct But in 2011, fewer than 4,000 people lived in Downtown’s scattered apartment and condominium buildings and houses. On a typical weekday afternoon , most Downtown workers got in their cars and put the city in the rearview mirror. Brown and Lynch saw an opportunity. They thought Boiseans would trade ample floor space and vaulted ceilings in the suburbs for smaller, high- end Downtown apartments that offered amenities like gyms, a do...

Mountain View's rent- control program has already survived political and legal trials -- but what about the business test? An increasing number of apartment owners appear to be cashing out rather than working under the new restrictions. If the trend continues, some say it will lead to a cascade of redevelopment spearheaded by large corporate buyers . This scenario would result in older apartments being phased out and replaced with new housing that is exempt from rent control. Those looking at the data with a more critical eye point out that sales of apartment buildings are up throughout the South Bay, and that the number of buyers indicates a healthy interest in investing in Mountain View housing , regardless of rent control. To take one example, Fremont residents Ann and Paul Lethers decided in June to sell their 18-unit complex on Del Medio Avenue in Mountain View, which they created from separate purchases of two adjacent nine-unit buildings. They say they h...

The city of East Palo Alto , a wedge of modest houses and light industrial sites in the heart of Silicon Valley , has been passed by in the great tech boom . A historically black area , it has seen a big Hispanic influx in the past two decades, with more than three out of four residents now coming from one of those two groups. It is still living down its reputation, gained a quarter of a century ago, as the murder capital of the US: one out of every 571 of its residents was the victim of a homicide in a single year. Things have improved since then. But over the same period, it has become the poor neighbour to some of the world's richest companies. In one of the ultimate signs of the divide between the haves and have-nots of the western US, the municipal government of East Palo Alto didn 't own the rights to draw more from the state's water reserves, which it would need in order to grow. In June this year, it took a gift of cash, from the private foundation set up by Mar...

Frasers Property Australia , Citta Property Group and Mission Australia have won the tender for the $2. 2 billion redevelopment of the Ivanhoe public housing estate in Macquarie Park, in north-east Sydney. The project is set to achieve high sustainability outcomes , such as carbon neutral operation , but while the news has been welcomed by many in the property industry , it has also raised questions about just how replicable this model of public housing funding is. The master plan for the 8.2 hectare site will see 259 existing low - density public housing dwellings demolished and replaced with more than 3000 dwellings built by the Aspire consortium, including at least 950 new social housing apartments and 128 affordable rental apartments . A non-government co- educational vertical high school , two 75- place childcare centres , a 120- bed aged care facility , 141 social housing independent living units and 132 private independent living units are also in the plans. Community f...

One resident narrowly escaped a mass murderer, another prefers parrots over people for company and a third is a a retired conman who just wants to be left alone to enjoy some of the best inner-city views in Sydney. Welcome to Northcott towers, Sydney's most notorious housing commission complex tucked away in what has become one of Australia's trendiest and most exclusive suburbs. About 1,200 residents pay as little as $80 a week for one- or two-bedroom units in the 14-story buildings in Surry Hills, just a stone's throw from the CBD where average rents for a two- bedroom home run to more than $900 a week. Known as the 'suicide towers,' the complex is Australia’s largest single block of public housing units and has a notorious reputation involving with drug abuse, mental health and unemployment. Invited by members of the tight-knit community of residents, Daily Mail Australia spent a day in the towers to 'meet the family' and explore the colourful neig...