Blog

I am on the Pickens Plan thing and when they ask me to send along form letters to my reps, I usually do. Eventually, I will receive an equally form reply from whoever. Below is Sen Hutchison’s most recent reply. To be honest, it could have come from any Senator. In fact, maybe there is a secret government web site that generates pithy replies on their behalf – like YouCanFoolSomeOfThePeople.gov or something. (If so, they need to improve the speed of turn around. I think I sent my email over a month ago.)  Anyway, sometimes when I read this rubbish…

“I disagree with people who think you learn more from getting beat up than you do from winning.” –Tom Cruise, actor, producer, controversial talk show guest and couch jumper.   AIG is in the news again, and this time it’s about the bonus payments to undeserving executives. As you can imagine, just about every pundit and a bunch of congress members all have opinions, and not surprisingly, they don’t agree. I think the issue has been fundamentally overblown, and if you take away the politics and headline grabbing news, this is a pretty simple issue. Let me illustrate the point….

“I am not worried about the deficit. It is big enough to take care of itself.” President Ronald Reagan Colorado National Bank, Colorado Springs, Colo. just failed. It was taken over by Herring Bank, Amarillo Texas. (I wonder what the logo is for Herring Bank?) Teambank, N.A. of Paola, Kan. just failed. It was taken over by Great Southern Bank, Springfield, Miss. FirstCity Bank of Stockbridge, Ga. just failed. They couldn’t find a bank to take it over. So we have real distress in small town America – Colorado Springs, Paola and Stockbridge. Not exactly household names, but representative of…

Well, if you will pardon the cheesy intro, allow me to relay my feelings following a day-long seminar featuring each of these engaging speakers, in addition to Joel Bess, Eric Jacobsen and the extremely articulate Roberta Ahmanson. Holy cow! Seriously, it was a lot for one person to absorb. I can’t recall the last time any industry-related daylong seminar was so intellectually stimulating. What is my measure of “intellectually stimulating,” you may ask. To hear Alexis de Tocqueville quoted three times before lunch is a pretty good yardstick for me. The conference at which all this great learning plus reasoning…

Unlike other sectors of commercial real estate, the multi-housing sector is lucky in that we still have construction financing available to us. We are talking government-insured construction financing. And no, the financing does not require that the developer build low-income, or rent-restricted, housing in any way. Neither is it a “voucher program” etc. Get this right: this type of financing applies to market-rate apartments. The architecture firm Humphreys and Partners Architects LP recently sponsored a webinar on Federal Housing Administration-insured financing, in particular focusing on the FHA “221(d)(4)” program for new construction and substantial rehab (FHA also makes possible acquisition/rehab…

Given the never-ending stream of bleak economic news of late, the stock market’s one-day surge on Tuesday was taken as a welcome sign. The major indices all saw their highest single-day gains of the year thus far, but whether the rally can be sustained for even a few days is, of course, another matter entirely. Meanwhile, the $410 billion spending bill just passed by the Senate will be enough to fund the government’s operations for the remainder of the fiscal year. Despite clearing the Senate by a vote of 62-35, critics assailed what they claimed were nearly $8 billion in…

If we all expect the development paradigm is actually going to shift, there are many cases in which we must actually be out there pushing it. I’m coming up to a situation in my own back yard. This means, I may actually have the opportunity to “put my money where my mouth is” and come out in support of something which I find positive for my community. It revolves around a senior housing development planned for a site within a mile of my home. This community came to my attention through a tiny neighborhood newspaper I receive in the mail….

“If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid.”—John Maynard Keynes (British economist and writer, 1883-1946) There are certain professions where the level of expertise and necessary practice are best left undiscovered. Example include professional fishing, working at a water treatment plant and attending Zamboni Driving School. (Question, does anyone actually flunk out of Zamboni Driving School?) Another profession, equally steeped in mystery, surrounded by tons of charts, tables, miscellaneous facts and doyennes of desire (think Erin Burnett) is economics. With almost a secret alchemy, economists have…

“I get no respect. The way my luck is running, if I was a politician I would be honest.”–Rodney Dangerfield In the ever-present sport of President watching in Washington, D.C., it’s easy to become immune to the foibles of policy debates, Sunday morning talk shows and ratcheting spending. I’ve had occasion recently to speak with friends, colleagues and readers of this column about their views on Washington and how the political message is playing out. What they’ve shared with me is, in a word, surprising. Apparently the euphoria of the new President is wearing off as fast as they’ll tire…

This week I’d like to take a break from the non-stop downer of the news cycle and talk about something else that’s near and dear to my heart: fresh thinking. I’m not even especially concerned about it being “outside the box.” You may have heard me say before that as a designer working in the multifamily industry, our really big moves happen when we think of something a bit new INSIDE the box. My neighbor Matt is in residential property management. Yesterday he mentioned to me that he had been very busy since October—re-painting apartments as people moved out. “Where…