"La Eace: San Francisco Housing Rents Climbing Faster Than Most Know"

The Registry | October 26, 2012

As of late, it seems the only things hotter than our home sales market is our rental market—and of course our San Francisco Giants! Who would have thought a year ago that the Giants would be facing the Detroit Tigers in the World Series? Or that rents would be up by as much as 15 percent year-over-year in San Francisco.

But are they?

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"Density makes cities more affordable"

Planetary Thinking | October 22, 2012

In the middle of this piece on the tranSFer of development rights (a useful approach, in which a developer pays farmers not to develop their farms into subdivisions, and is given a height bonus in return by local government, allowing him or her to build a taller building), there sits this strange quote:

“Of course, TDR is not without its critics. Many green-minded people will celebrate density until it arrives in the form of a high-rise condo next door. But this hesitation is about more than just NIMBYism: Anna Nissen, a design professional in Seattle who takes a critical eye to TDR, points out that upscale development — like Olive 8, for example — drives up property values and hastens gentrification. ‘The poor, the working class, and their employment have been bounced out of central cities that unaccountably are making matters worse by designating dizzying amounts of increased density,’ she writes in an email. ‘TDR rides aimlessly on top of all that.’”

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"Miniature Digs"

Modern Luxury | October 11, 2012

Roll out of bed and you are already in the kitchen.

Here’s a rental notice that might surprise even the most jaded of San Francisco apartment hunters: “Studio, 300 sq. ft., $1,500 a month.” Yes, that’s $18,000 a year for a home the size of two parking spaces. But such pint-sized digs are scheduled to hit the market in SoMa this month, thanks to Patrick Kennedy, developer of SMARTSPACE. (Kennedy won’t confirm any prices, but sources have reported anywhere from $1,300 to $1,600.)

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"My City is My Living Room"

Life Edited | October 10, 2012

The real estate blog Curbed recently published a post entitled “Ten Hilarious Quotes About Living in ‘Micro-Dwellings‘”. The post is a collection of quotes from various publications that cites the way micro-dweller’s rationalize their small digs. There were quotes like “We don’t do closets” or “On Saturdays, if we both get work calls, one of us has to take theirs into the bathroom.”

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