Blog
‘What Renters Want’ with Jessica Fiur: The Cooking Show Phenomenon, and How It Changed Multifamily
A few years ago, I had no idea what creme fraiche was. I didn’t know beets could be made into foam (or why anyone would want them to be. I’m actually still trying to figure this one out). Actually, to be honest, I didn’t even know how to boil an egg. Seriously. Don’t judge. But all that changed with the influx of cooking shows such as “Top Chef,” “Iron Chef,” “Diners, Drive Ins and Dives”…the list goes on. Suddenly I don’t just know how to cook, but I want to. And it’s not just me. Everyone watches these shows now,…
‘Outside the Box’ with Erika Schnitzer: How Trader Joe’s Can Be An Example to Apartment Managers
Step into a Trader Joe’s store in Manhattan and you’ll be greeted with a madhouse of customers maneuvering the tight aisles, and employees frantically restocking shelves and holding up “End of Line” signs, which keeps getting further and further away from the checkout. Yet the customers keep coming, loading their carts and waiting in line. This scene is not just at the holidays; it’s year-round. The store doesn’t have sales; instead, it offers low prices all year long. But it doesn’t sacrifice in quality, either. The produce is fresh, the baked goods look like something you’d find at a gourmet…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Divorce American Style
In the beginning it was great, like true love—so exciting and cozy. I couldn’t wait to get home, to be there, the newness of it all, the way it made me feel, all tingly inside, like a hug after a long journey. Then it started to get to me—the noise, which was a cacophony of chatter, chirps and humming. Oh how I hated the humming, even thinking once that a quick whack with a frying plan would stop it permanently, but the consequences of that were too much to consider. I really don’t know how I got sucked into this…
Effect of Home Mortgage Interest Tax Deduction on Multifamily Real Estate
By: Jeffrey A. Kohn, Esq. There have been a number of proposals to reduce or eliminate 26 U.S.C. § 163(h) of the Internal Revenue Code, which currently allows home mortgage interest to be deducted for federal tax purposes (the “Mortgage Interest Deduction”) subject to certain limitations. Currently, most taxpayers that elect to itemize may deduct the interest on their mortgages on their federal income tax returns. There are two important limitations on the Mortgage Interest Deduction: (1) the deduction is limited to interest on debts secured by a principal residence or a second home and (2) interest is deductible on only the first…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Not Your Father’s Renter Thanksgiving
I’m a second-generation American. My parents both came here from immigrant families that probably would have been denied entry if not for the fact that they arrived here around 1908. I come from a long line of renters (and a couple of very colorful characters who resided for a time at Sing-Sing and some other places for trying to make a living in some non-traditional ways). Renting was, in most respects, the norm in those days, and the vast majority of immigrant families either lived with relatives that had previously entered the country and found housing, or rented tenement flats or…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Mack the Knife
Sometimes you get to meet people in this business that really surprise you. Being on the inquisitive end of research, I’m always observational instead participative, so I notice details many would consider non-important (Probably one of my most irritating qualities). That’s why I wanted to tell you about Mack the Knife, the Chicago Chop House and how you get professional basketball players to lease from you. Picture it: Chicago, land of governors and gangsters, where a well-placed bribe is a lot like a bet, you never quite know how it’s going to turn out. Chicago in winter is unlike any…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Caryle’s Grand Gaffé?
In an article that appeared this week in the Wall Street Journal, not necessarily the most accurate of sources, to be sure (hello, Rupert, lay off anybody today?), there is a bellwether article garnering little notice, but certainly worthy of more attention than Rick Perry got about forgetting the names of the federal agencies he was going to eliminate. When it comes to the annals of fund raising history, few can match the talent, wits and connections of the Carlyle Group, so named for the Carlyle Grand Cafe in Washington, D.C., according to my conversation years ago with a senior…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: Weigh in on S&P’s Debt Downgrade and Other Topics
Have you visited the MHN home page lately? Next time you’re there, we hope you’ll take a minute or two to share your viewpoint by participating in our poll. The topic right now is President Obama’s new mortgage plan allowing more underwater homeowners to restructure their Fannie/Freddie mortgages. We want to know if you think the plan will: 1) Slow multifamily growth because it well help the market swing back to homeownership; 2) Help multifamily growth because Gen-Y does not see the importance of homeownership; 3) Have no impact on multifamily; or 4) It’s too soon to tell. The previous…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: How the Apartment Turns, or You Want Fries with That?
Renters are a pretty curious bunch, and between checking out the latest and greatest buildings and comparing amenities with their friends, they use smart phones and social media to get information. Being in research, an integral part of gaining perspective is to, in essence, act and think like a renter. Emptying my head of such non-renter notions as cutting the grass and painting the deck, I recently began to investigate the potential of using smart phones to get information about renting in a community without calling them. For this test, I used my recently acquired Samsung Galaxy II 4G phone,…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Italy, Greece and U.S. Apartment Rents
Apartment rents have been a bright spot in an otherwise dreary economic outlook. The last time I had a conversation with anyone from Greece, he was a taxi driver taking me to LaGuardia. We had a very spirited conversation about Greek politics along with his insistence the speed limit signs in Manhattan were only advisory and didn’t apply to taxi drivers. An interesting fact that came out of the trip to the airport, white knuckled, seat-belt tightening aside, was that people in Greece apparently feel a sense of comfort that their system, however disorganized and prominently dysfunctional, takes care of the…