The Census Bureau has released some very interesting statistics from the American Housing Survey. The survey covers characteristics of the housing inventory in most metropolitan areas and there are always some surprises. For example, in 2009 in Seattle, homeowners in the Sea-Tac metro area paid a median monthly housing cost of $1,576, while  renters paid $1,019 by comparison. Renters contributed a higher percentage of their incomes to housing costs (30%) than owners did (23%). Looking at Chicago for comparison, homeowners paid a median cost of $1,479 per month while the renter median was $895, also in 2009. Percentages of contributions…

When traveling for business, it seems there’s often one little detail that gets overlooked. Today I had to be in Phoenix to visit a property with a client, as sort of a fact-finding mission. (“Shade” at Desert Ridge, a former Gold Nugget “Rental Apartment Community of the Year.”) It’s only a short flight over to Arizona, but the community is about a half hour drive from the airport. (Sprawl—go figure.) A rental car was necessary. Since business has been slow for a while, I haven’t traveled a ton, especially to destinations where a rental car is required, so I guess…

Ok, I’m gonna call it: busy is definitely back. I’m teetering right on the edge of exhaling, and it won’t take much to push me into real belief. If I’m dreaming, please don’t wake me, because I like this. As far as I can figure, the phone started ringing in earnest about sixty days ago. At first, the work was coming in as sort of a steady trickle . . . drip, drip, drip: a combination of both completely new developments and others previously left for dead. The drips have combined and become a relatively steady flow, so much that…

Well, to be fair, what I really mean is nobody jaywalks in Los Angeles. Seriously. My conviction surrounding this issue stems from the day my colleague was ticketed to the tune of about a hundred bucks for jaywalking. Mind you, this was not for casually wandering across the street mid-block, this was for walking against the flashing orange hand at an intersection. Not the solid orange hand, the flashing orange hand. I was in Manhattan about two weeks ago, and it pretty much took a full 24 hours for me to understand I wasn’t in the city of angels anymore….

Ok, so I have a new goal. By the time I’m 55, my home will generate enough electricity to not only re-charge my electric vehicle, but also to sell the excess back to my local utility. Please understand that I’m well on my way already—there’s a photovoltaic system on my roof that was designed to provide about 85 percent of my annual demand. Why stop at 85 percent? Well, at the time, the theory went that since any energy generated at my place in excess of what I could use would flow back into the grid—from where my utility company…

My excellent colleague Natasha Selhi passed along some interesting information from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this morning. The EPA wants renters to know that, much like single family homeowners, they do have control over how green their apartment homes are; in fact, they can express their dissatisfaction with a current apartment community by moving to another. According to EPA, “A common misconception is that renters have little control over the environmental impacts of their homes. The truth is that renters can influence many environmental aspects of their housing, from choosing where they live to adopting everyday practices that save…

Today… The laws of nature will be broken. Matter as we know it will be altered. Time will have no relevance. The past is hot. The future is COOL!” Not since our ancestors squatted around an open fire, cooking the catch of the day of the day on a stick over an open flame has there been such a leap in cooking technology. With today’s modern kitchen consuming as much as 30 percent to 40 percent of household energy, the magnetic induction cook-top uses 90 percent less energy than that of a conventional gas or electric cook top, making it…

I was chatting on the phone with a publicist earlier this week. After he got done with his editorial pitch, the conversation turned to other topics. He and his wife are thinking about downsizing and also moving to a warmer climate… maybe Florida, where there are condo bargains waiting to be snatched up. It was just one consumer talking, but his optimism was contagious. This anecdotal evidence reinforces the May numbers released by the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index® which now stand at 63.3, up from 57.7 in April. The Present Situation Index increased to 30.2 from 28.2. The Expectations…

On March 31, just days after signing his controversial healthcare legislation, President Obama advanced another piece of his domestic agenda. In what he has called “one of the most significant investments in higher education since the G.I. Bill,” the President signed The Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, which includes legislation to revamp the federal student loan program. “We will provide the support necessary for you to complete college and meet a new goal,” President Obama pledged to the American public. “By 2020, America will once again have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world.” The…