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...

Morningside Park, a Kushner Companies- owned housing complex , in Middle River, Maryland (Philip Montgomery for The New York Times) Maryland’s two U.S. senators and four of its U.S. House representatives , all Democrats, sent a letter today to the large real- estate company owned by the family of Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump ’s son-in-law and senior adviser, demanding information about the company’s management of 17 apartment complexes it owns in the state. The letter to Kushner Companies came in response to a May 23 article co-published by ProPublica and The New York Times Magazine investigating management practices at the rental complexes, most of which are in the suburbs of Baltimore, as well as an article this week in The Baltimore Sun that revealed additional details . The original story described the highly aggressive legal tactics that Kushner Companies has used to pursue tenants who owed back rent or had left their leases early — even tenants who left the complexes...

Duval Mobile Home Park in southeast Houston has 182 lots." />EXPAND The Duval Mobile Home Park in southeast Houston has 182 lots. Stephen Paulsen Elizabeth Perez loves her trailer park . But if she's ever forced to move, at least she has a back-up plan. A chatty 45-year-old with a wide smile, Perez has lived at and managed the Trinity Duval Mobile Home Park in southeast Houston since 2008. Used mobile homes here typically sell for $12,000 to $38,000, depending on their size and condition, she says. She remembers one woman buying a home for just $2,000, using her IRS refund. The Duval Mobile Home Park first opened in the 1950s. It was purchased last year by Trinity Community Group , a trailer park management company — and Perez worried about the future of the park. “I kept thinking, ‘Shoot, they're going to want to tear it down,’” Perez said. “I was kind of scared.” The company promised it would keep the park operational , according to Perez. Still, Perez accepts...

In truth, there is no real physical difference between what defines an apartment and what defines a condominium . They typically offer the same range of amenities, but the ownership of the property is where the real difference exists . Apartment units contained within a single complex are generally owned by the corporation or business that built the complex in the first place. Those individual units are then leased by an overarching management system that controls all the units. Condos, however, are owned much differently. Each unit in a condo complex is owned by an individual, and a homeowners association typically handles property management . That means most condos are rented from the owner of the condo itself, and not an overarching owning entity like with apartments. There are still some differences in the rental experience that one should expect, which are outlined below. Financial Costs In terms of month-to- month rental fees , condos and apartments are usually priced sim...

Lancaster- based Oak Tree Development Group said it has agreed to buy the 11-acre property from Wilbur’s owner, Cargill, for an undisclosed price. “We like projects that are community-centric,” said Oak Tree President Mike O’Brien. “We’re excited to do a project that positively impacts a small town like this.” Oak Tree expects to submit plans to the borough in 60 days. The firm hopes to get them approved by year-end, start construction in early 2018 and complete the venture by March 2019. A name for the project has yet to be selected, said O’Brien. He declined to disclose the project’s cost. “We’re eager to work with Oak Tree,” said Karen Weibel, president of Lititz’s Borough Council . “It’s a local firm. They have a lot of credibility. We’re extremely thankful that the building will be utilized quickly, and not sit there for five or 10 years and invite blight.” Mayor Tim Snyder also was enthusiastic about the plan, saying the new uses “will enhance downtown Lititz . ... It’s going...

The long retail spine of Sydney Road, Brunswick, just north of Melbourne's CBD, was once a prosperous trading outpost on the way to the goldfields. These days it's a bohemian mix of variety stores, op shops, halal butchers and Lebanese bakeries. Take a side street to the west, however, and a different picture emerges. Sandwiched between Sydney Road and the Upfield train line is an area undergoing rapid and widespread transformation. Light industry is fast being replaced by mid- rise apartment buildings , their inhabitants attracted by the short commute into town and cheaper prices than in the city's south-east. The quality of these units is, on the whole, depressingly bad; think poor ventilation and bedrooms that "borrow" natural light (a weasel word for being dark and windowless). The occasional jazzy façade tries feebly to make up for otherwise cheap construction amid a chorus of greys. At ground level, carpark roller doors alternate with mean pocket garden...