Equity Residential, the largest U.S. apartment owner, and Apartment Investment & Management Co., the nation’s fourth largest, sold 53,000 apartments last year so that they could move their investments to faster growing parts of the country.

The companies sold in markets such as Dallas, Detroit, Houston, and Indianapolis and purchased or upgraded apartments in New York, Boston, Washington, D.C.,South Florida, Southern California, and the San Francisco Bay Area.
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The commercial real estate business can expect another two years of good times, but starting in 2009, the segment could weaken, predicts real estate mogul Sam Zell, speaking at the New York University 12th Annual REIT Symposium.

Zell is the chairman of Equity Residential, a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns apartments. He also heads a number of real estate and other ventures domestically and abroad. He is working to purchase media company the Tribune Co., a deal he declined to discuss.

Earlier this year, Zell sold Equity Office Properties Trust to Blackstone Group for $23 billion plus the assumption of debt in the biggest REIT deal ever. Read more

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Singer Avril Lavigne is now the owner of a Los Angeles mansion, which has more than 10 bathrooms. The 22-year-old singer and her hubby ‘Sum 41′ frontman Deryck Whibley bought the home that was owned by former Miss USA Shanna Moalker and her hubby Travis Barker, for 9.5 million dollars. The three-story, eight-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot Tuscan-style home has more bathrooms than bedrooms. Spread over an acre of land, also houses an elevator, an office, an ultra-modern kitchen, a 10-car garage, a steam shower, a sauna, a swimming pool and a health spa. Read more

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Singer Avril Lavigne is now the owner of a Los Angeles mansion, which has more than 10 bathrooms. The 22-year-old singer and her hubby ‘Sum 41′ frontman Deryck Whibley bought the home that was owned by former Miss USA Shanna Moalker and her hubby Travis Barker, for 9.5 million dollars. The three-story, eight-bedroom, 12,000-square-foot Tuscan-style home has more bathrooms than bedrooms. Spread over an acre of land, also houses an elevator, an office, an ultra-modern kitchen, a 10-car garage, a steam shower, a sauna, a swimming pool and a health spa. Read more

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Every cloud has a silver lining, usually shining on somebody else. Now, with the owner-occupied sector of housing in a downturn, it is the apartment industry’s turn.

The National Multi-Housing Council (NMHC) recently declared “It’s official. The dark days of the apartment market recession are officially over.” This euphoric claim is contained in the annual report of the national association which represents 1000 members from the apartment development, marketing and management industries. The report went on to say that the current demand for rental housing is at remarkable levels because rising interest rates and skyrocketing housing costs are keeping many would-be buyers in apartments while supply is relatively constrained by escalating land and construction costs the conversion of thousands of rental units to condominiums. Read more

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The slowdown in the housing market hasn’t curbed consumers’ desire for upscale kitchens and baths, says American Institute of Architects Chief Economist Kermit Baker.

“Households continue to emphasize size, features, and high-end products used in their kitchens and baths even as the overall housing slowdown has encouraged many to scale back on their overall housing investment,” he says.

No longer just a place to cook, the kitchen has evolved into the most popular room in the house. “There’s a strong desire to integrate the kitchen with living space that allows for a more open home environment with the ability to converse and access entertainment options while in the kitchen,” says Baker.

In the most recent AIA design trends survey, 40 percent of architects report a trend toward larger kitchens. Almost one-third see separate kitchen facilities (other than the main kitchen) or secondary food preparation or food storage areas as also increasingly appearing in homes.

Kitchens also are an area where owners are likely to upgrade. “Upper-end appliances are becoming more popular, even for homes that aren’t at the upper end of a price range,” says Baker. Read more

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Designing for the 55-plus crowd is the most powerful trend in home building these days.

Americans aged 55 and older will buy 20 percent of all new homes built this year, according to research by the National Association of Home Builders. Design features that cater to them have to be both practical and boast a “wow” factor.
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Renters be warned: Landlords are expected to raise apartment rents for a third-straight year in 2007, forcing tenants to turn over a growing chunk of their pay and making it harder to save for a home, a report to be issued today by Marcus & Millichap finds.

With the projected rise of 5% this year, rents would be 14% higher than at the end of 2004, the report says. Over the same period, paychecks are expected to rise 4%, adjusted for inflation.

The widening gap is likely to worsen the crisis for workforce housing, especially in coastal cities, says Hessam Nadji, a managing director at Marcus & Millichap, a real estate investment brokerage. “This is a national trend. We’re seeing rents rise in the majority of markets, and we see this continuing for at least three years.”

From 2000 to 2004, most landlords couldn’t raise rents because so many tenants were leaving to buy houses or condos. To feed that buying frenzy, about 300,000 apartments were converted to condos for sale in the past three years. Now, even with 92,000 new rental units this year, the stock is still too little to meet rising demand.

Renters will get a bit of a break in places such as Miami, Las Vegas and San Diego, where investors bought thousands of condos, hoping to flip them for a quick profit. Since the market faltered in late 2005, many of those condos have been empty, and investors are seeking tenants to help pay the mortgage. Read more

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