Envy Apartment

The Oasis Terraces housing complex in Singapore and the original cast of “Rent” How to tell if one has made it in America? See if they own a home. For decades, homeownership has been one of the cornerstones of the American dream, and the U.S. housing market was the envy of the world. But that’s changed. The federal mortgage subsidy complex , which turned (white) America into a nation of homeowners in the postwar decades and helped build the world’s largest middle class , is no longer doing what it’s supposed to. Faced with stagnating wages and ballooning property prices , fewer Americans can afford to buy their own homes. The mortgage interest deduction and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are turning into regressive subsidies, channeling taxpayer money to rich homeowners and driving up housing costs while a growing group of middle-income renters must fend for themselves. Rent-stabilization laws have become weaker over time. And New York is dealing with a crumbling public housing infrast...

Rents in the Vallejo area, while the lowest in the Bay Area, are rising faster than in most other places, even as the number of renters increase, driving some people out of the area, a new study found. A firm called Apartment List conducted the study to try and get a handle on the challenges renters face , spokeswoman Sydney Bennet said. “In the Vallejo metro, the number of renter households has increased by 30 percent since 2005,” she said. “However, there was insufficient data and research into the challenges renters face . To address this, Apartment List set up its data science program in 2014.” That research leverages proprietary rental unit and survey data, she said. “We also invest significant resources into gathering and analyzing Census and other publicly available data,” she said. The resulting study found that the Vallejo area’s 5 percent year-over- year rent increases , leads the national and state averages. The median monthly rent for a two-bedroom unit in Vallejo t...

The city of Tampa is on the cusp of a total makeover. With billions of dollars in investment and dozens of new apartment, condo, office and cultural buildings in the pipeline, the city's skyline and surrounding communities are poised to look a whole lot different than what it does today. But dreaming up the future of Tampa doesn't come without its challenges. For all the promises of a new urban core filled with hotels, parks, food halls and stores, there are also potential pitfalls. The Tampa Bay Times identified the five key obstacles that stand in the way of some of the biggest projects proposed in Hillsborough County . Many of these challenges are ones local politicians and business leaders have been fighting for years to find a solution. Others are fairly new territory, but still pose a real threat to the region's continued growth. [LOREN ELLIOTT | Times] A construction site is seen just north of Amalie Arena in downtown Tampa , Fla., on Monday, May 1, 2017. Curr...

UPPER WEST SIDE , NY — About 20 pounds of heroin and fentanyl were seized after federal, state and city law enforcement agencies raided an Central Park West apartment doubling as a drug mill, the New York City Special Narcotics Prosecutor announced Monday . Four men are facing charges for operating a heroin and fentanyl packaging operation out of the apartment following the sting led by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ’s, NYPD, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the New York State Police . On Friday law enforcement officers were conducting surveillance on 448 Central Park west — located across from Central Park near West 105th Street — when they observed a man exit the building carrying two boxes and enter an Uber car, officials told Patch . Federal agents followed the vehicle and stopped it near 121st Street and Amsterdam Avenue in Harlem, officials said. During the stop, agents saw that one of the boxes was open and detected a tan powdery substance , officials to...