Apartment Rental News Weekly Roundup

September 19th, 2008 by Matt DiChiara| Posted in Weekly News Update | 4 Comments »

This week, we’ll take a look around the apartment rental world to check out what is going on with the nation’s apartments for rent.

Green Apartments

We have talked a lot in our apartment guide about how renters can go green in apartments, but today we saw an interview with an owner of an apartment in Madison, Wisconsin, who goes the extra mile to keep his apartment green.

Paul Johnson has enacted some low cost plans such as installing compost bins for kitchen waste, a compost hole for pet waste, replacing all public bulbs with CFLs, upgrading insulation and giving each tenant control over their thermostat. You can read more of that interview with Paul Johnson, Sustainable Landlord here.

New York City Apartments

CNNMoney.com reported on the possible affect that the financial crisis will have on New York City apartments. Due to the growing number of job losses, (11,000 from July 2007 to July 2008) amongst employees in the financial sector (of which there are around 185,000), some are worried that the normally strong apartment rental market in New York will have increased vacancies.

Most, however, agree that demand for apartments for rent in New York will not decrease to the point of causing significant rent reductions, so we doubt that there will be either any cheap apartments for rent in downtown Manhattan nor many investment bankers sharing a bunk bed in studio apartments.

Off Campus Apartments

We have reported previously on how universities affect the local apartment rental markets in which they are situated; cities such as Boston , Williamsburg, VA and Duluth have had to pass local ordinances to maintain harmony.

Typically, there is animosity between local residents and students because off campus apartments can depress local real estate prices. They are viewed as mischievous ruffians that don’t have a long term stake in the community at large. Consequently, there is usually pressure on the university to house all of its students on campus.

In San Luis Obispo, home to Cal Poly, however, the story is different. Local apartment owners are concerned that Cal Poly’s new dorm will increase vacancies at their properties and force them to lower rents.