Apartment Look

SEATTLE , Aug. 24, 2017 / / -- Home values are setting new records in about half of the country's largest metros, and the national median home value is now $4,100 more than it was in April 2007 , just before the market crashed , according to the July Zillow® Real Estate Market Report i . Home values in Denver , Dallas and San Jose have appreciated most beyond the previous record-highs set at the peak of the housing bubble in the mid-2000s. Homes in Denver are almost 60 percent more valuable now than during the bubble, increasing from a median home value of $235,900 in April 2006 to a current median home value of $371,100 . When the housing market crashed , home values plummeted and it has taken about 10 years for home values to reach new record highs. Strong labor markets and steady income growth have pushed up home values in the nation's hottest markets more quickly than in others. Among the 35 largest housing markets , 15 ii have higher median home values tha...

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...

A Cedar Ridge Apartments tenant shows a respirator she claims she sometimes needs due to alleged mold issues at the south Sacramento apartment complex . Code Enforcement is continuing to inspect the complex to determine if there are violations. PHOTO BY MICHAEL MOTT Nancy Avalos watched as her 5- and 8-year-old daughters danced and chased each other. Their laughter filled the living room. “My daughters don’t want to move out,” Avalos said in Spanish. Her voice broke. “I feel like I’ve let them down.” Avalos moved to Cedar Ridge Apartments six years ago. After sharing a living room of an apartment together, the single mother wanted to give her three daughters room to play and moved to a place they could call their own. But now the family is moving out of its two- bedroom apartment , after Avalos’ monthly rent rose from $802 to $1,086. For Avalos and her neighbors, sharp rent and utility bill increases hit the past two months as the property owner, Torrance- based Cedar Ridge Apa...