Multigenerational Housing Is a Real Estate Growth Niche

Taylor Morrison, a housing developer based in Arizona, was set to break ground on a 304-unit condominium development in Sunnyvale, near San Jose, when the bottom fell out of the housing market in 2007.


The company went back to the drawing board, and last month it gained approval for a drastically different plan: a town house project aimed at extended families, where children, parents and grandparents can all live comfortably under one roof.

Such multigenerational housing is specifically aimed at the booming immigrant population in the Bay Area, and is emerging as one of the few growth niches in a moribund housing market.

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Community Agriculture Goes Global With Coffee

Rather than buy produce at a store, members of community-supported agriculture programs, known as C.S.A.’s, pick up their vegetables in a neighbor’s garage, right where a local farmer leaves them. This direct grower-to-consumer relationship has become so popular that it has inspired meat and egg C.S.A.’s among Northern California ranchers and farmers, as well as grain C.S.A.’s and even C.S.F.’s — community- supported fisheries — elsewhere.  (Read Full Story...)

Penn South Votes Yes on Financing Deal

Free market be damned.
That was the overwhelming sentiment at the Penn South co-ops, the low-priced complex in Chelsea where highly coveted apartments can be had for $30,000. Residents voted on Thursday whether to accept a city financing deal that would extend the complex’s affordability by eight years, keeping units out of private hands until at least 2030. According to Brendan Keany, the site’s general manager, 87 percent of people voted to accept the deal, while 13 percent voted no. (Continue reading...)

Developers Scale Back Ambitions

DENSITY is often the deal-breaker. Planners and developers emphasize the need for it; residents and zoning boards balk at the prospect of a more urbanized suburbia. Which may be why some developers who have failed to win long-sought approvals for megaprojects are scaling back their ambitions.

In Plainview, Michael Dubb, the principal and founder of the Beechwood Organization, is working on a site plan for Country Pointe, a residential enclave with a mix of mid-$400,000s to $800,000-plus single- and multifamily units. It features a clubhouse with indoor and outdoor pools, a sports bar, a movie theater, a beauty salon, a spa and a gym. Additionally, 54 of Country Pointe’s 140 acres will be set aside for ball fields, walking trails and open space.  

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Record number of New Yorkers sleep in homeless shelters

A record number of New Yorkers were forced into city homeless shelters last year, a new report says.
The Coalition for the Homeless says that in the 12 months ending last June 30, 113,553 New Yorkers slept in city shelters.

That's a 37% increase since 2002 when Mayor Bloomberg took office.
"A big part of this problem is caused by the failed policies of this administration," said Patrick Markee, a senior policy analyst at the coalition.

Although the annual figure is 10 months old, the coalition says the problem hasn't gotten better: In February, the number of people in homeless shelters in a single night hit an all-time high of 39,542.

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Identifying City’s Worst Landlords via Craigslist, and Trying to Penalize Them

It is almost second nature for some New York City tenants to suspect their landlords of cutting corners when it comes to fixing a balky heater or securing dangling light fixtures.


But now tenants can find out a lot more about any landlord’s portfolio by clicking a link, “NYC’s worst landlords,” on the apartment search pages on Craigslist. It provides information that highlights, with the help of Google Maps, landlords with the worst inspection records.

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