U.S. Needs 4.6 MILLION New Apartments by 2030
TO REPLACE ALL OF THE ONES DESTROYED BY SEA LEVEL RISING, HURRICANES, FLOODS, WILDFIRES, EARTHQUAKES, ETC. ???
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2,900 solar homes with battery backups planned in Prescott Valley AZ.
Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | azcentral.comPublished 9:00 a.m. MT Oct. 15, 2017
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A look at the size and scope of Arizona’s solar industry, according to fures from the Solar Energies Industry Association. Photo by Nick Oza/The Republic
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(Photo: Handout)
A Prescott Valley housing development will include 2,900 homes with solar and battery backup systems, Mandalay Homes has announced.
The Jasper development will break ground this year and have models available by September, according to Geoff Ferrell, Mandalay Homes chief technology officer.
The development will be built in phases, including single-family homes, age-restricted areas and rental-style income properties, he said, and all will include rooftop solar and a residential battery system standard. Prices at a nearby Mandalay project run about $336,000 for a three-bedroom, two-bath 2,100-square-foot home.
Sonnen, a Germany company, will supply the batteries and solar, Ferrell said.
Batteries can store energy for 'on-peak' use
The batteries will allow customers to store the power from their solar panels made early in the day and use it during "on-peak" hours between 3-8 p.m., when energy prices are higher in the Arizona Public Service Co. territory.
The batteries also will be able to take advantage of lower overnight electricity prices to charge up, Ferrell said.
"What we are trying to do is optimize this for the home to be of maximum benefit to the utility and fiscally to the potential homeowner," Ferrell said. "We want to make sure installing these in homes standard is not a burden and that the benefit the homeowner will get in terms of a lower month energy bill is a premium."
Batteries have seen limited use so far in Arizona, although APS has a pilot project testing their use with solar and other technologies that better match a home's power use with the supply on the grid.
Batteries are widely thought to be the next big development to help spur increased use of rooftop solar because they can make better use of the power that comes from solar.
Solar creates a 'duck curve' problem
Solar creates a problem known as the "duck curve" where demand on the power grid rises sharply like a duck's neck in the late afternoon at the same time solar panels cease production.
MORE: What is the power demand of your home?
The more solar installed on the grid, the sharper the duck curve, and the more need for technology to better align power production and demand.
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Christoph Ostermann (left), CEO of Sonnen and Dave Everson, CEO of Mandalay Homes, stand near the battery in the Prescott test home. (Photo: Handout)
"This can really start to change the duck-curve issues on the grid that are such a problem today," Ferrell said. "From 3-8 p.m., what (the utility) needs is for customers to turn things off. That's what the battery does. It is a repository for that energy all day long, and the homes are so efficient we can tell them to turn off from the grid at 3 p.m. every day and rely on the battery."
Batteries could work in unison with APS
The batteries will have a capacity of either 8 or 10 kilowatt-hours, he said.
An average-sized air-conditioner can draw 3-4 kilowatts of power, so the battery could supply that appliance for about two hours of use. Because air conditioners cycle on and off, how long the battery could fully power a home would depend how hot it was outside and the thermostat setting, as well as other appliances.
Additionally, Sonnen batteries can link together and could provide additional services for APS by working in unison, he said.
"We would like that partnership and would like to work with them to utilize these batteries to a higher purpose," he said.
Mandalay has built a conceptual home with the battery system at its Dells community in Prescott.
APS' program for customers with solar, batteries
APS recently won approval from state regulators to change its rate plans. Among those changes was the creation of a new rate called Saver Choice Tech that will benefit customers with solar and batteries.
The rate rate charges a "demand fee" based on the highest one-hour use of energy during peak hours in the month, but charges less for the total volume of energy used, said Jessica Hobbick, manager of regulatory affairs for APS.
Battery systems will help customers mitigate the demand fee, which was designed to encourage customers to reduce energy use during peak hours, she said.
She said the purpose was to design something that was mutually beneficial to customers and the utility, and to encourage solar installations that better align with the power grid.
Arizona Eco Development, a land-holding company, is developing the Jasper community, which will have an entrance at Santa Fe Loop and Glassford Hill Road.
Mandalay also is planning a similar project in Wickenburg, Ferrell said.
Reach the reporter at 602-444-4331 or ryan.randazzo@arizonarepublic.com.
http://www.azcentral.com/story/money...ley/762241001/
Sad that we have to import new energy technology like the battery for solar that the German company will capitalize on instead of A USA COMPANY supplying these new modalities.
As the German company proudly states, "We export all across USA" https://www.sonnenbatterie.de/en-us/start
Unfortunately too many Americans bought the hustle by big gas & oil & more unfortunately trump is pushing it! - does anyone really think that expanding drilling for dirty gas and is progress?????? - the only progress is more money for the rich stockholders & reckless industries as they dig up and eminent domain your property for pipelines to EXPORT THE TOXIC STEW and the cancers will rise. We will export to this billionaire below and our reckless industries (they even get billions in taxpayer funds as subsidies and write offs) & our president is more than happy to accommodate him at our health's expense..
This Chemical Billionaire Profits from Pennsylvania’s Fracking Misery. Now He Wants to Frack Europe
A dangerous new pipeline across Pennsylvania fuels a chemical giant’s plastics empire. Will U.S. or European leaders step up to stop Ineos?
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By Peter Hart
10.12.17
Early this month, the Scottish government announced that it would extend its moratorium on fracking for an indefinite period of time. This was good news for the global anti-fracking movement, but very bad news for James Ratcliffe, the secretive billionaire owner of the chemical colossus Ineos Corporation.
His company is already a key player in the fracking business here in the United States. The company imports U.S. gas derived from fracking to its chemical plants in Europe, using this key feedstock for one of its primary businesses, the manufacture of plastic pellets. Those materials make it to Europe thanks to its fleet of so-called “dragon ships,” which travel across the Atlantic Ocean for processing at refineries like the Ineos-owned facility at Grangemouth in Scotland.
That business will see a serious boost if the Mariner East 2 pipeline is put into operation. The highly controversial project, now owned by Energy Transfer Partners, would carry highly volatile gas liquids 350 miles across the state of Pennsylvania to an export terminal near Philadelphia, where it can be loaded onto the Ineos ships.
Despite the size of the company, Ineos remains shrouded in mystery. A new issue brief from our affiliate Food & Water Watch Europe, “Chemical Billionaire’s Bid for Fossil Fuel Empire,” provides an in-depth look at the rise of Ineos. And it lays out the company's plans for the future, which are dangerously simple: Push for more fracking in the United States, while buying up licenses and infrastructure to start drilling in the UK.
Ratcliffe’s “dream” is, in fact, a nightmare. As the new report documents, Ineos is not content with importing fracking-derived feedstocks via its trans-Atlantic virtual pipeline. The company has been pushing hard to begin fracking in Scotland and England. Ineos is the largest holder of shale drilling licenses in the United Kingdom, including significant historical sites such as the Sherwood Forest of Robin Hood lore. And the company is also making substantial investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, including storage tanks and pipelines, in preparation for a European fracking bonanza.
But there’s just one problem: It might not ever happen. The growing public opposition to fracking in Scotland and England, and the movement to stop the Mariner East 2 here, is a serious threat to Ineos’s plans to frack everywhere it wants. Despite the company’s huge investments in lobbying government officials, it was unable to sway the Scottish government to support fracking. The company even released a last-minute video pleading the pro-fracking case, to no avail. And the resurgent Labor Party in England has said it would support a fracking ban there as well.
As the new report makes clear, Ratcliffe has made billions by placing some very risky bets. He has profited off the misery and destruction caused by fracking in Pennsylvania and Ohio. But those communities—and the global movement supporting them—are fighting to stop Ineos in its tracks.
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/ne...s-frack-europe
Leak Reported at Scottish Gas Plant Linked to Pennsylvania Fracking
Early reports indicate a gas leak at the Ineos facility in Grangemouth
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At around noon local time, reports emerged of a major pipeline leak inside the Kinneil Gas plant in Grangemouth. The facility is owned by a company called Ineos, which has pioneered the use of so-called “dragon ships” to carry gas liquids like ethane and butane from Pennsylvania across the Atlantic Ocean to be used in plastics manufacturing.
Ineos is owned by anti-union billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, who calls these massive ships a “virtual pipeline.” His profiteering poses a threat to public safety in Pennsylvania by driving more fracking across a state already devastated by drilling. And it poses serious threats in Scotland too, as today’s incident makes clear.
Breaking news reports indicate that some nearby roads are closed, and students at schools in the area have been kept inside for safety.
While it is too early to determine the magnitude of today's leak, powerful players in the United States-- from the White House to the Energy Department to the office of Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf--are pushing policies that will result in more drilling to serve the plastics industry. If they get their way, there will be more such disasters to come.
It's more proof that the fight against dangerous drilling must be global. At the moment, on-the-ground activism in Pennsylvania is directed at stopping the 350-mile Mariner East 2 pipeline, which is tied to the liquids exporting business championed by Ineos. Elise and Ellen Gerhart are fighting to stop Sunoco from taking their property via eminent domain. And there are other grassroots coalitions, like the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety, driving local opposition to the project.
https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/ne...vania-fracking
73,000 New apartments since 2015.
This map shows the extent of the Southern California apartment boom. Will all the construction help lower your rent?
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New apartments are springing up across Southern California, with 73,000 units either built or under construction during the past three years. Here a pedestrian passes a 363-unit project near the Warner Center in Woodland Hills. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
12 COMMENTSBy JEFF COLLINS | JeffCollins@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: November 13, 2017 at 6:45 am | UPDATED: November 13, 2017 at 7:42 am
Irvine resident Mike Meservey thought he would find a bargain when he saw all the new apartments being built along Jamboree Road.
Developers must be desperate to fill all these new buildings, he figured. And they must be offering deals.
Turns out, nothing could be further from the truth. As a result, Meservey and his wife, Rose, are staying put in the Irvine condo they’re renting for $2,000 a month.
“They’re building tons of stuff. They just keep building and building,” said Meservey, 58, a retired plant manager. “But they call them luxury apartments and charge $3,000 a month.”
Irvine isn’t alone.
Southern California — and the nation as a whole — is experiencing the biggest apartment construction boom in a quarter century.
In the last 34 months alone, new apartments have been springing up from San Clemente to Sylmar, from Murrieta to Marina del Rey.
More than 37,000 new apartments have been built in the region since the start of 2015, data from commercial real estate tracker CoStar show. More than 36,000 more are under construction.
CoStar projects Southern California is on track to complete 15,000 new apartments this year and 23,000 more in 2018.
Developers in the region have added almost 65,000 new homes to the local housing stock since the recovery began in 2012 — a gain of almost 2 percent.
It’s the most construction in the region since at least 1991, according to Reis Inc., a market data firm.
And it’s happening across the country. U.S. developers are on track this year to complete at least 350,000 new apartments, the most since the late 1980s, according to rental data firm RealPage Inc.
“This is the biggest number we’ve seen in a long time,” said Mark Obrinsky, chief economist for the National Multifamily Housing Council. “Demand ran ahead of supply, and supply is starting to play catch-up.”
So, after seven years of galloping rents and low vacancies, are tenants finally going to get a break? Is there an apartment glut that will trigger a round of rent cuts?
In a word, experts say, no.
If anything, developers still aren’t building enough.
There might be some saturation in a few areas, like in downtown Los Angeles, where rent hikes have slowed.
And because most of all this new construction is for luxury apartments, there’s very little that’s affordable to middle- and low-income workers.
“We do see that the pace of rent growth is starting to slow,” said Greg Willett, RealPage chief economist. “But (rent growth) still is solidly positive.”
Rentership society
What’s driving this boom?
The number of renters has been soaring since the housing bubble burst in 2007.
Southern California had 128,000 fewer homeowners last year than in 2007, a 4 percent drop, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures. During the same period, the region added 414,000 new renter households, a 17 percent gain.
Almost half of all Southern California households are renters. As a result, demand is up, rents increased by at least 23 percent since 2010, and vacancies fell to 3 percent in some areas, Reis figures show.
Experts say demographics are driving this trend.
Thanks to steady job growth, a lot of millennials are moving out on their own, and they tend to rent, experts say. At the same time, homeownership is closed off to many, either because of high home prices, tight lending practices or student debt.
“A lot of people want to buy homes, but can’t or can’t get money from the bank,” said Jerry Fink, a co-founder of apartment investor The Bascom Group. “Apartments are the main beneficiary of that demand.”
A National Multifamily Housing Council study released in June also found millennials are delaying key triggers for becoming a homeowner: marriage and having children. The study also found aging boomers and immigrants are swelling the ranks of renters.
The success developers had with new apartments in 2014 and 2015 spurred even more construction, said Barbara Denham, Reis senior economist.
“The economics supported this idea that if you build new units, people will fill them,” Denham said.
L.A. explosion
Los Angeles County dominates the apartment boom, accounting for 415 out of 529 new Southern California complexes built or under construction during the past 34 months, CoStar data show.
Of the 73,000 new apartments, almost 49,000 — two-thirds — are in Los Angeles County.
Forty-two percent of new apartments are cropping up in a 10-by-13-mile swath on the West Side stretching from Silicon Beach to the 101 freeway downtown.
Orange County accounts for 81 projects with just over 20,000 new apartments or a little more than a fourth of the total. A third of Orange County’s new units are in the city of Irvine, Southern California’s second-busiest city for apartment construction.
The Inland Empire lags its coastal neighbors. It has just 33 new buildings, with 4,838 new units — much of it clustered in the Riverside-Corona area and the Chino-Chino Hills area.
Los Angeles County ranks seventh among the top U.S. metro areas in apartment construction from 2010 through mid-2017, according to RealPage.
Houston and Dallas lead the nation, however, with almost twice as many new apartments as L.A. County.
Indeed, the pace of construction here is much less dramatic than in many smaller cities like Washington, D.C., Seattle and Austin, which all have built more apartments than L.A.
“People in L.A. are going, ‘Oh, my gosh, we’ve got a lot of construction going on,’ ” said Jay Lybik, vice president of research services for commercial real estate brokerage Marcus & Millichap. “Yeah, you’ve got a lot going on, (but) given the size of the metro and the population growth and the household growth, you can almost make the argument the region is incredibly under-housed.”
Complete mismatch
Most of this new development comes at a high cost.
Only 7,800 of the new apartments — 11 percent — are affordable units, limited to low- and moderate-income tenants.
The average rent for those units is $1,842 a month.
The average rent for the 66,000 “market-rate” apartments exceeds $2,800 a month, with rents topping $15,000 per month at one Century City complex.
“There seems to be a lot of supply of housing, but it’s not at all income levels,” said Cesar Covarrubias, executive director of the Kennedy Commission, an affordable housing advocate.
Most new jobs, meanwhile, are at the opposite end of the income spectrum.
“There seems to be a complete mismatch between the housing supply and the type of jobs that are growing,” he said.
Without subsidies, however, affordable housing doesn’t pencil out, developers say.
“It cost near as much to build affordable as luxury,” said Fink, of the Bascom Group. “Whether you’re affordable or luxury, the land costs are the same. Materials are almost the same. …
You have to build luxury and charge luxury rents or it’s not feasible to build the building.”
Will new construction at the high end help low- and moderate-income tenants?
Opinions vary.
Industry professionals and economists say construction of more Class A apartments will increase the availability of Class B and C buildings, creating more vacancies — and smaller rent hikes — at the low end.
“Building new apartments helps the overall market,” said Mark Asturias, executive director of the Irvine Community Land Trust, a nonprofit affordable housing organization.
But the key, said Asturias and other affordable-housing advocates, is construction “at all income levels.”
“I am not a believer in the trickle-down theory of real estate, and there is data to support this position,” said Alan Greenlee, executive director of the Southern California Association of Non-Profit Housing. “I don’t see how building solely for the high end relieves pressure on the lower part of the market.”
Downtown glut
The 700-unit Eighth & Grand apartments cover almost an entire city block in downtown Los Angeles, with a bank and Whole Foods Market on the ground floor and two-bedroom rents as high as $4,100 a month. It has a lobby cafe, a roof-top pool and spa and a home theater.
It’s one of 42 complexes built or under construction in the 5 square miles that make up downtown Los Angeles. In all, 12,000 new units have been built or are under construction there.
“More people want to live in urban areas,” said Denham, the Reis economist. “People (downtown) are enjoying the freedom to walk to work or go to restaurants after work.”
But all that construction is having an impact on downtown rents and lease-up rates, said Willett, RealPage’s chief economist.
“We’re at the point where we’re starting to see (decreased rent hikes) in downtown, along the Wilshire Boulevard corridor and Hollywood,” Willett said. “You’re not cutting rents, but you’ve slowed the pace of growth because of what’s happening downtown.”
Still, industry insiders and economists say the Southern California housing shortage is so severe that current construction may just be a drop in the bucket.
The Los Angeles metro area will need 164,000 new apartments by 2030, according to the study released in June by the National Multifamily Housing Council.
“Are they building a lot in certain submarkets? Yes. Is it a little soft? Yes,” said Fink, whose company is working on two downtown L.A. projects. “Are they going to continue to be soft in the long term? No.”
Fink acknowledged that concessions, such as a free month’s rent or gift cards, are commonplace, especially in places like downtown Los Angeles. But that’s typical for all new developments, he said.
“Pretty much all new buildings offer concessions because they want to lease-up quickly,” Fink said.
On the flip side, most new buildings are filling up. Fink said lease rates of 20 to 30 units a month are common.
The George, a partially completed 340-unit building on the edge of Anaheim’s Angel Stadium, had no trouble signing 60 new tenants during its first two months despite rents in the $2,015 to 3,900 a month range, said property manager Trent Borts.
The luxury building has a coffee lounge, a pet spa, and a roof-top pool deck featuring a giant outdoor TV, a self-service beer garden and views of Angel and Disney fireworks shows. New tenants, including a couple of Angels team members, get their third month rent free.
“We don’t need to offer a lot of concessions,” Borts said. “We don’t have to lower our price.”
Produce importer Domingo Kaskas became one of The George’s first tenants, paying $2,400 a month for a one-bedroom unit. The location is convenient for him. It takes just 25 minutes to reach the downtown L.A. produce market at 4 a.m. And he likes the amenities.
“(It’s) very appealing,” Kaskas, 27, said. “The staff is wonderful here. The amenities are over the top. … It’s worth the extra couple hundred bucks.”
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/13...-numbers-soar/
How much of our grandchildren and great grandchildren's future earnings were borrowed to finance this?
Golf courses declining as hundreds of homes rise
Brittany Wallman Contact Reporter Sun Sentinel
Golf course designs that don’t have anything to do with fairways and putting greens are throwing another South Florida community into a fret.
The defunct Oak Tree Golf Course in Oakland Park, once a well-manicured urban oasis, will have 850 homes on it if developer Pulte Group gets the approvals it’s seeking.
The story line is increasingly familiar in South Florida, where vacant land is scarce. Couple that with the national trend of failing golf courses, and you have a recipe for redevelopment.
In just the past few years, golf course neighbors in West Palm Beach, Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Pembroke Pines, Tamarac, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Kendall and many other South Florida communities have struggled, mostly in vain, to stop the projects.
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The developments often are mired in controversy — and sometimes litigation — for years.
In Oakland Park, homeowners shouted, pleaded and groaned over the just-announced Pulte plans. One man burst into tears as he asked what would become of mature trees and the birds that nest in them.
Many of them said they want to live next to a golf course and asked whether even a small version could be retained in the planned home development. The answer was no. The Oak Tree course stopped operating about 10 years ago.
“There’s a reason it’s not operating as a golf course,’’ Pulte real estate acquisition Director Tony Palumbo told the crowd. “The cost to operate and maintain a golf course, they’re shutting down everywhere.’’
Annual figures released Thursday by the National Golf Foundation back that up.
The foundation found that 211 golf courses in America permanently closed in 2016, and 15 opened. That leaves 14,117 18-hole courses in the United States, the report says.
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Chief business officer Greg Nathan called the decline in golf courses a “natural market correction.’’ In an email, Nathan said a two-decade building boom that started in 1986 produced a glut of golf courses. People are playing more golf, the foundation’s figures show, but the number of courses is slowly declining.
Community uproar
Even in Palm Beach County, one of the golf capitals of America, courses are closing, and homes are rising.
There are 10 golf courses at some stage of conversion to residential development, golf course appraiser Vince McLaren said. That’s of the roughly 149 18-hole courses in the county, said McLaren.
“We’re seeing the conversions definitely heat up in the southern part of the county,’’ said McLaren, who works at the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office, “like nothing I’ve seen.’’
In Boca Raton, for example, the Mizner Trail golf course remains closed years after a housing project was approved there.
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County Commissioner Steven Abrams voted against the development, after residents told him they’d be satisfied even if nothing got built and the acreage became “their own Serengeti,’’ he recalled. Indeed, nothing has been built.
“It’s a big eyesore,’’ he said of the former golf course. “The clubhouse in particular. I’m trying to see if we can demolish it.’’
When developers sought to build on the Century Village course in West Palm Beach, Abrams voted for it.
“We took a lot of heat for that,’’ he said. “In their documents, it called for the golf course to exist in perpetuity. … [But] were we going to keep it a weed patch in perpetuity?’’
Each case offers its own quandary, he said, and neighbors do best if they work with the developers, and face reality.
“The reality is it’s not going to be a golf course,’’ he said.
In another case, Boca Raton homeowners successfully fought to stop development of the Ocean Breeze/Boca Teeca golf course. It’s slated to be purchased by the Greater Boca Raton Park and Beach District.
Meanwhile, the Boca Raton Municipal Golf Course in West Boca is for sale.
Oak Tree uproar
Broward County and Miami-Dade don’t have as many golf courses, but they have their share of the same controversies.
According to Broward Property Appraiser Marty Kiar, there are about 45 golf courses in the county, and at least three closed in the past five years.
Miami-Dade Property Appraiser Pedro Garcia estimates 37 there. The latest proposed conversion is the Calusa Golf Course property in Kendall.
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As in many of the cases, the 139-acre Oak Tree site in Oakland Park isn’t zoned for a residential community. The developer needs approvals from the city, county and state. Though no plans have been submitted, the developer this month conducted the required preliminary meetings with the community.
Palumbo and other developer representatives faced a sometimes-hostile crowd of more than 100 people airing concerns about traffic, views, crime and property values.
When someone asked why the company is seeking to build so many homes, Palumbo’s answer drew groans: “Why not?’’
He said it’s too soon to say how traffic and environmental concerns will be dealt with, and whether the number of homes can be cut.
“Today’s day one,’’ he said. “We’re going to have to stand before the public bodies. We’re going to have to answer the questions. … We are, believe it or not, we’re listening.’’
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/br...321-story.html
Malls, shopping centers getting new life as residential and retail projects
By D.J. O'BrienForest City Enterprise’s recent proposal to convert the 579,000-square-foot Ballston Common Mall in Arlington County into a major mixed-use multifamily-retail project is the latest local example of a national trend that shows no signs of letting up. More and more older enclosed malls are being phased out and redeveloped into pedestrian-friendly, open-air formats that blend residential, retail and office space to attract workers, residents and shoppers.
According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, City Creek Center in Salt Lake City is the only traditional enclosed mall to be built in the United States since 2006.
Developers and planners are rethinking the mall concept, integrating different property types in hopes of achieving higher occupancy rates and higher rents. Office tenants and residents enjoy the convenience of having multiple retail and dining options nearby, while retailers and restaurants like the increased foot traffic from having both workers and residents on site.The change is evident in the percentage of the region’s retail space included in such mixed-use projects. Between 2007 and 2011, the percentage of all retail space built in the region included in such projects averaged 26 percent between 2007 and 2011. Since then, approximately 66 percent of all retail space built in the region has been part of a mixed-use project.
The total is expected to increase once plans are finalized and construction begins on two notable redevelopment projects, White Flint Mall in Rockville and Landmark Mall in Alexandria.Other mall makeovers currently underway in the metropolitan area include the former Springfield Mall, where Vornado Realty Trust is razing and rebuilding 706,000 square feet of shopping, theater and restaurant space between an existing Macy’s, J.C. Penney and Target anchors. The project’s transformation into Springfield Town Center is slated to include 2,000 apartments, a 225-room hotel, and 1 million square feet of office space.
In Laurel, a partnership between Greenberg Gibbons, Somera Capital and AEW Capital is turning Laurel Mall into Towne Centre at Laurel, a mixed-use project with a 435-unit apartment complex and 400,000 square feet of retail space. Groundbreaking is expected soon.
The trend even extends to former retail strip centers, such as Federal Realty Investment Trust’s redevelopment of the former Mid-Pike Plaza in White Flint into “Pike and Rose.” The project’s master plan calls for 1,500 residential units, 1.1 million square feet of office space, a 350-room hotel and 450,000 square feet of retail anchored by a 44,000 square foot state-of-the-art iPic Theatres complex.
This development trend shows no signs of slowing down as developers and retailers compete to stay one-step ahead of consumers’ ever-changing shopping and housing preferences.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...59_story.html?utm_term=.4fdeb261311b
Thousands of new 55-plus homes go on sale as aging population boosts demand
11 COMMENTS By JEFF COLLINS | JeffCollins@scng.com | Orange County Register
PUBLISHED: November 17, 2017 at 2:26 pm | UPDATED: November 17, 2017 at 2:29 pm
The Irvine Company had a 31-acre parcel near the Orange County Great Park that was ideal for new homes, but it was outside the coveted Irvine Unified School District.
Homebuilder CalAtlantic had a perfect solution: Build homes for seniors — folks whose children are no longer in school.
The new 55-plus Travata development officially opens Saturday, Nov. 18, in the Irvine Co.’s Cypress Village development next to the Great Park’s southern boundary.
The 243-home development has three home types and 13 different floor plans, all of them either one story or with major living areas on the bottom floor. They include second-story “flats,” each with their own private elevator. There also are townhomes and houses.
The grand opening is planned for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 18-19.
But longtime Irvine residents Jack and Maureen Khaw couldn’t wait until then to find out about the new project. The couple turned up at Travata’s construction site on Wednesday to peep at the new homes.
The Khaws lived since 1981 in Northwood, three miles to the west, raising two daughters who now live on their own nearby.
Since then, they’ve seen the value of their home quintuple, from $181,000 to $1 million. But they’re attracted to a 1,900-square-foot, single-story floor plan in Travata.
“It’s newer homes, and it’s all for 55-plus,” said Maureen Khaw, 63.
Demand for age-restricted housing has been soaring as baby boomers enter retirement, prompting more and more homebuilders to build 55-plus communities.
Housing starts on 55-plus homes jumped to 53,000 single- and multi-family units in 2016 from 30,000 in 2012, figures from the National Association of Home Builders show.
“What’s driving the demand is that cohort of the population,” said Idaho homebuilder Dennis Cunningham, chair of the NAHB’s 55-plus Housing Industry Council. “Right now, 10,000 people every day turn 65.”
That number is expected to increase to 15,000 a day by 2020, he added.
There are 78 million baby boomers, plus 32 million people between 72 and 88 — more than 100 million Americans older than 55 but not yet in managed care.
And people are living longer.
The proportion of 55-plus families is projected to rise to 44.5 percent of all U.S. households in 2024, up from 42 percent in 2014, NAHB figures show.
“The data show that close to 50 percent to 60 percent (of senior homeowners) will do some type of relocation, maybe in their same town, maybe from a two-story home, maybe to downsize,” Cunningham said.
A smaller yard, lower property taxes and less maintenance all are incentives for senior homeowners to downsize. “Lifestyle amenities” like walking clubs, gardening areas and a clubhouse also can be a draw.
“You have a lot of the larger builders either in that market segment or getting into it,” Cunningham said.
CalAtlantic has been expanding its focus on active adult developments, with age-restricted projects making up about a fourth of its developments in Los Angeles and Orange counties, the company said. The firm is building 55-plus homes in 10 states.
Rancho Mission Viejo has focused on the senior homebuyer since launching its Sendero project east of San Juan Capistrano in 2013, with 40 percent of the 940 new homes in its Gavilan neighborhood. It has since included Gavilan homes for seniors in all three phases of its Esencia development nearby. In addition to CalAtlantic, Gavilan developers include Shea, William Lyon and Del Webb Homes. Del Webb also is building two 55-plus projects in Brea’s La Floresta development.
“Our Gavilan neighborhoods continue to draw high demand,” said Rancho Mission Viejo Vice President Dan Kelly. “They’ve become such a vital part of Rancho Mission Viejo.”
Travata and other Orange County 55-plus developments give seniors the opportunity to downsize while continuing to maintain their local network of family, friends, medical providers and shops, said Elliott Mann, CalAtlantic’s Southern California Coastal Division president.
Others are “trailing parents,” who have children and grandchildren living in Orange County and they want a place of their own nearby.
The Travata homes include one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 1,417 to 2,567 square feet apiece. The one-bedroom units also have dens, and all units have attached garages.
All are designed for aging residents, with wider, wheelchair-accessible doorways, no-step showers and blocking behind drywall for shower grab bars. There’s also a community clubhouse, a lap pool, a gym, pickleball and bocce ball courts and access to Great Park trails.
Prices start above $600,000 for the cheapest units and range up to more than $1 million for the houses.
“They don’t need the homes they stayed in any longer, and they want to stay near family and friends,” Mann said.
Travata is southwest of the intersection of Ridge Valley and Floral View.
http://www.ocregister.com/2017/11/17...boosts-demand/
We need more 55+ affordable homes and more 55+ RV resorts all across the USA.
There are plenty of Family neighborhoods and plenty of Family RV parks!
Build more Senior living communities.
Will millennials give housing shares a boost?
Published November 18, 2017 Personal Finance Dow Jones Newswires
Where are the top investment opportunities in housing?
PwC Partner Mitch Roschelle on where the investment opportunities are in real estate.
Millennials are no longer snubbing homeownership, and some market observers argue that could offer a tailwind for housing-related shares and the broader stock market.
A September study by Zillow Group is getting a lot of attention. It found that people aged 18 to 34 now make up 42% of home buyers in the U.S., making them the largest group.
The phenomenon is being cited as proof that millennials don't hate the idea of homeownership after all, and that a long decline in homeownership that started in the middle of the last decade had more to do with the financial crisis and its aftermath.
Analysts at Pavilion, in a recent note, argued that the underlying trends offer further encouragement. In a note, they contend rising rents and the prospect of higher interest rates may have convinced many young Americans that now is the time to buy. At the same time, rental vacancies are rising. That's potentially bad news for residential real-estate investment trusts, they said.
Meanwhile, a recovery in income growth for persons aged 25-34--a cohort that had lagged behind other age groups--is also encouraging, they said. All in all, that should be good news for U.S. home builders, they said, though they noted that tight labor conditions are pushing up construction industry wages and have left home builder profit margins flat in recent years.
Home builders have outperformed the broader stock market so far in 2017. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) is up nearly 23% year-to-date, versus a 15.2% rise for the S&P 500 .The iShares U.S. Home Construction ETF (ITB) is up nearly 49%.
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Barry Ritholtz, chairman of Ritholtz Wealth Management, in a Bloomberg View column also cited rising rents and a strengthening economy, as well as a delayed pickup in household formation, as factors behind the renewed millennial interest in homeownership.
The reversal of the phenomenon, he said, is an important contributor to the momentum behind the economic recovery from the credit crisis and is also a "potentially significant for the next leg up in U.S. equity markets." He cautioned, however, that proposals in tax legislation to reduce the mortgage deduction could dent the recovery.
Kristina Hooper, global market strategist at Invesco, isn't convinced millennials are the key to the housing recovery.
While millennial attitudes toward homeownership do appear to be changing in a positive way, "the reality is that they are saddled with so much student loan debt," she said, in a phone interview. She cited a September report from the National Association of Realtors and American Student Assistance (https://www.nar.realtor/research-and...housing-report) showing a U.S. student debt load of $1.4 trillion, accounting for 10% of all outstanding debt and 35% of all non-housing debt.
Moreover, the survey of persons born between 1980 and 1998 found that among non-homeowners, 83% cited student loan debt as the factor delaying them from buying a home.
Add in the potential elimination of the mortgage deduction and the deduction for state and local taxes, it's difficult to get too excited about a millennial resurgence driving the housing market, she said.
Hooper argued that a focus on home improvement rather than home buying could be good news for home furnishing and renovation-related stocks. Even in a worst-case scenario in which the mortgage interest deduction is eliminated, current mortgage holders would be grandfathered in, giving them incentive to focus on renovation rather than seeking new homes, she said.
For that matter, the Pavilion strategists see home furnishings as the better way to play an improving real estate trend, arguing that a larger share of first-time buyers in overall sales suggests better sales growth.
Meanwhile, the sector's price-to-earnings ratios are recovering and, while not cheap, are far off the postcrisis highs, they said.
Data on Friday showed U.S. October housing starts jumped 13.7%, attributed in part to a recovery from hurricanes that ravaged Texas and Florida. Meanwhile, sentiment among home builders has been running strong all year.
The week ahead sees earnings from retail home improvement chain Lowe's Companies Inc. (LOW) on Tuesday, as well as results from farm-equipment maker Deere & Co. (DE)(DE) on Wednesday.
It will be a holiday-shortened week for U.S. markets, with exchanges closed for Thanksgiving Day on Thursday and abbreviated hours in store on Friday.
Stocks ended the past week on a down note, leaving the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average with weekly declines of 0.1% and 0.3%, respectively, but still not far off all-time highs. The Nasdaq Composite closed at a record Thursday and ended the week with a 0.5% rise.
The economic calendar will see existing home sales data for October released on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Eastern. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch look for annualized rate of sales to come in unchanged from September at 5.39 million.
Wednesday will see weekly jobless claims as well as October durable goods orders, which are forecast to see a 0.5% rise, November consumer sentiment figures, and the release of the minutes of the Fed's November policy meeting.
http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2...res-boost.html
REAL ESTATE Nov. 17, 2017
Otay Ranch low-income housing opens. Already has a 10-year waiting list
Phillip Molnar
The demand is so high to get into Otay Ranch’s new low-income housing complexes that the waiting list is now more than a decade. Both projects in the Millenia development — Duetta and Volta — officially opened this week and have rent as low as $759 a month for some residents. In total, there were...
Top 50 Master-Planned Communities
Together, the top 50 masterplans sold 27,580 new homes in 2017
As rental prices rise, Texas company snatches up hundreds of Tucson homes
- By Gabriela Rico Arizona Daily Star
- Jan 13, 2018 Updated Jan 13, 2018
https://bloximages.chicago2.vip.town...ize=1200%2C800
Tucson’s rental market has been on a hot streak.
ablokhin
A tightening rental market, fueled by insufficient multifamily developments in the works, has placed upward pressure on rent prices in the Tucson area and piqued investor interest.
An Austin investment group recently bought about 200 single-family rental homes in the Tucson area for more than $19 million.
It was the first venture into the local market for Amherst Holdings and part of a larger purchase of 1,532 rental homes for more than $153 million around the country.
“This acquisition will further enable us to grow our presence, enhance scale in existing markets, and expand into new markets where we see significant value,” Keith Ramsden, chief investment officer of Amherst Single Family Residential said in a prepared statement.
“We expect that there will be several other portfolio acquisition opportunities in the coming quarters that should serve as further catalysts to continue to grow our footprint in key markets.”
Amherst Holdings did not respond to a request from the Star for an interview about the company’s interest in Tucson.
The Tucson homes it bought are located throughout the city with sale prices ranging from $80,000 to $170,000.
The company’s portfolio states that the Amherst Single Family Residential platform acquired 6,000 single-family homes in 2017, bringing its inventory to 17,000 rental homes in 18 states.
“Usually when we see institutional investor groups it is an indicator that the market is moving up,” said Ginny Huffman, president of the Tucson Association of Realtors. “We are on the radar because we’re starting to pick up some corporate interest. … The Caterpillar acquisition was huge and other companies are seriously looking at Tucson.”
Rental rates across all properties rose in 2017 with single-family home rents increasing from an average of $1,228 a month in January 2017 to $1,366 in December, data from the Tucson Association of Realtors show.
“Tucson remains a strong choice for housing investment opportunities,” said housing analyst Ginger Kneup, owner of Bright Future Real Estate. “We haven’t seen large portfolios of rental properties that were accumulated during the recession come back to market, indicating that demand for single-family rental homes remains strong.”
DEMAND FOR RENTALS
The overall rental market in the Tucson area has been on a hot streak for the past couple of years. Investors have been buying complexes around town as rents rise and new workers move in.
Only a handful of new apartment complexes are in the works, which increases the demand for single-family home rentals, said Art Wadlund, a senior managing director at Berkadia.
He predicts rents will continue to rise in 2018.
“Demand for rental housing of all types is presently exceeding new demand,” he said.
Huffman, with the Realtors association, owns rental management company Imagine Realty Services Ltd. and works with landlords and tenants.
“Rents have been rising during what is traditionally a slow period,” she said of fall and winter months. “It’s pretty amazing and once we get into February, March and April we’re going to see even higher rents as more people move in.”
Renting is not always an affordability issue, Huffman said.
Many of her tenants want the flexibility to move to other job opportunities, and retirees may want to pursue extended travel.
“Tenants want to be loose and fancy-free,” she said. “There’s always going to be a demand for rentals.”
http://tucson.com/business/as-rental...a0baea939.html
San Bernardino County News: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
https://www.dailybulletin.com/location/california/san-bernardino-county/
In 2018's first three months, permits were filed for 10,253 new residential units in the four counties in Southern California . . .
DEPORT 30 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS, REFUGEES, TPS AND ASYLUM LIARS AND FREE UP OUR HOUSING!!!
WE HAVE NO HOUSING...STOP IMPORTING MORE BREEDING, UNEDUCATED, 3RD WORLD POVERTY HERE!!!
WE HAVE OUR OWN HOMELESS TO TAKE CARE OF!
10 YEAR MORATORIUM ON ALL IMMIGRATION
WE DO NOT WANT TO OVER BUILD AND STRAIN OUR RESOURCES, OUR LAND AND OUR WATER SUPPLY!
U.S. NEEDS TO DEPORT 25 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS, VISA OVERSTAYS, TPS, REFUGEES AND ASYLUM LIARS TO FREE UP HOUSING FOR U.S. CITIZENS!
DEPORT THE WHOLE FAMILY!