"The Sketchiest Bay Area Apartments You Can Rent Now"

The Bold Italic | February 28, 2019

Discoveries from a depressing scroll through Craigslist

Aa Bay Area renter, I often find myself diving into the darkest corner of the housing section on Craigslist to see if it’s worth moving out of my current rental situation.

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"S.F. Architecture Map: A changing city"

SF Chronicle | February 27, 2019

The treasures of our landscape are wide-ranging, from the obvious towers to such easy-to-miss gems as a snake-like laboratory building set against a forested hillside or an 1888 opera house reborn through a bootstrap restoration.

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"Opportunity Zones Funds Are The Next Big Thing In Real Estate"

Fundrise | February 26, 2019

“…The potential impact of unlocking these tax benefits on long-term returns is massive.

For example, after 10 years an investor could see an additional $44,000 for every $100,000 of capital gains invested into an Opportunity Fund by December 31, 2018, compared to an equivalent investment in a more traditional stock portfolio generating the same annual appreciation…”

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"Wall Street, seeking big tax breaks, sets sights on distressed Main Streets"

San Francisco Chronicle | February 22, 2019

“…The law permits an investor to roll over capital gains — proceeds from the sale of stocks or a home, for instance — into an opportunity-zone fund. The fund can then put the money in a zone by investing in, say, a condo project or affordable-housing units.

An investor who keeps money in a such a fund for 10 years is able to exclude 15 percent of the original capital gain from taxation. And — potentially much more lucratively — the investor would not owe taxes on any gains that accrued if the investment increased in value in that time…”

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"Editorial: Fighting a phony emergency, California should recognize a real one"

San Francisco Chronicle | February 22, 2019

“…California has a real crisis that it has rarely treated as such. It’s the housing shortage, which has given the state the nation’s highest poverty rate and nearly a quarter of its homeless population.”

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"Wall Street, Seeking Big Tax Breaks, Sets Sights on Distressed Main Streets"

The New York Times | February 20, 2019

Distressed America is Wall Street’s hottest new investment vehicle.

Hedge funds, investment banks and money managers are trying to raise tens of billions of dollars this year for so-called opportunity funds, a creation of President Trump’s 2017 tax package meant to steer money to poor areas by offering potentially large tax breaks.

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"The most cost-effective way to help the homeless is to give them homes"

Vox | February 20, 2019

Addressing housing directly is cheaper than relying on cops and emergency rooms.

“…it’s cheaper to give homeless people homes to live in than to let the homeless live on the streets and try to deal with the subsequent problems.”

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"Where Is the Roommate Capital of the United States?"

The LowDown Blog | February 18, 2019

From Dec 4, 2015

‘When the lights go down in The City, and the sun shines on the Bay…’ Convergence, collaboration and community? JL

Dan Kopf reports in Price Economics:

Across the entire country, the proportion of people with roommates has increased from 6.8% in 2000 to 7.7% in 2014, a 13% increase. In San Francisco, the roommate rate went from 23.3% to 28.1% in this same period, an increase of 20.6%.

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"Rethinking The Tower"

Ryerson City Building Institute | February 17, 2019

“… We need to consider new innovations and strategies to help tackle housing challenges …This report explores options that have been tested in other markets and considers how they might contribute to making more housing affordable—or rather, attainable…

Case studies are grouped into four categories: 1. Micro Living… 2. Shared Space… 3. Home Unbundling… 4. Equity Options…”

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"State Treasurer: California Is Open For Business, Will Comply With Opportunity Zone Program"

BISNOW | February 6, 2019

Newly elected California State Treasurer Fiona Ma is on a mission to support the governor’s effort to build more housing in California through the new opportunity zone program.

“The good news is … we want to fully conform with the federal government in terms of opportunity zones,” Ma said as the keynote speaker at the Opportunity Zone Expo in downtown Los Angeles.

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