Shores: A love story

The love story began in 1955, when Epstein was first approached by then Los Angeles County Supervisor Burton Chase to assist in the planning for the creation of Marina del Rey, soon to become the largest recreational boat harbor community in the world. Less than a decade later, when construction of the marina was completed, Epstein and his partners bid successfully to build apartments, in exchange for a 60-year lease on a barren 23-acre parcel of dredged soil on the western side of the 807-acre Marina del Rey coastal community located near the center of Los Angeles' Westside between Venice Beach and Playa del Rey, just four miles north of Los Angeles International Airport.

In the mid-1960s, Marina del Rey was developed through a then-uniq
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MHP Reflections

Humans are beautiful, complex creatures.

Try as we may, we can not simplify this complexity into an app, a box or other metric container, wrapped in our intentions. We will alway yearn for inspiration, crave beauty and seek wisdom.

Here's how I know.

Raised in St. Louis, I shared a city with the Pruitt-Igoe apartments. Inspired by modernist theories of urban renewal, Minoru Yamasaki (who would go on to design the World Trade Towers) committed to blueprint 33, 11-story, box-like structures to efficiently house the poor. Serendipitously it became my first poignant lesson on public housing and the ill-effect of mathematical efficiency. The last of the failed project was razed in 1976, though its memory remains.

I wasn't raised in Pruit
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A credit score that tracks rent payments

The new report also includes any property tax liens and whether you've fallen behind on your homeowner's association dues. It may reflect that you now owe more than your house is worth or if you own any other real estate properties outright. It also is supposed to catch mortgages made by smaller lenders that the big credit bureaus may have missed.

The idea, CoreLogic says, is to provide lenders with more details about prospective borrowers, supplementing what they already know through the more traditional credit reports furnished by the big three credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. Moreover, CoreLogic has formed a partnership with FICO-the provider of one of the most popular credit scores used by lenders -which will formulat
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Apartment construction surges

The number of permits to build apartments jumped to a three-year high in October. In 12 months, they've surged 63 percent.

Blame the housing bust, which left many people without the means, the credit or the stomach to buy. More people need apartments. The demand has driven up monthly rents. And apartment-home builders are rushing to cash in.

That said, the overall home market remains depressed. Builders are still struggling. They broke ground on a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 628,000 homes in October, the government. That's barely half the pace that economists equate with a healthy market.

High unemployment, stagnant pay and waves of foreclosures have slowed sales of single-family homes, which make up about 70 percent of the hom
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Apartments rock downtown

With apartments nearly full and waiting lists piling up, a sense of rental euphoria has fallen over downtown Cleveland.

The downtown apartment market has tightened up dramatically, thanks to growing zest for urban living and a housing crash that helped make apartments the hottest commodity in the real estate business.

The occupancy spike-to 98 percent or higher at some buildings-has developers looking for their next project and wondering whether Cleveland can create enough supply to meet renter demand.

"Downtown needs more apartments, and it's just that simple," said Ralph McGreevy, executive vice president of the Northeast Ohio Apartment Association.

Apartment are filling up across the country. In the Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor
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Bozzuto takes a Giant leap

Cathedral Commons is a $125 million, two-block, mixed-use development that will include 137 apartment units and eight townhomes, more than 500 parking spaces, and 128,000 square feet of retail anchored by Giant Food, the grocery market share leader in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

"Giant is looking forward to the transformation of the current Wisconsin Avenue store into a vibrant, urban destination for Cathedral Heights, Cleveland Park and the District." said Anthony Hucker, president, Giant Food of Landover, Md. Giant has been a part of this neighborhood for the past 50 years, and our new store will enable us to better serve the community for years to come."

"We are thrilled to work with Giant to create Cathedral Commons, a c
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Business analytics seeing huge demand, outpacing talent

A survey out the first of December, by the EMC Corporation, is showing that nearly one-third of companies across the globe are able to use new data to aid in business decisions and reveal customer insight.

EMC reached across the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, India and China to see how companies are using data tools such as mobile sensors, social media, surveillance, medical imaging and smart grids.

Business demand for data scientists have outpaced the supply of talent.

The survey showed that one-third of respondents were confident in their company's ability to make good business choices based on new data sources. Barriers that were identified that kept companies from using that troves of data available to the ben
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Can we consume less?

Will rich societies start consuming less Could wealth go green Might parsimony become the new luxury Heresy, surely, you would say. But it might just be possible.

Take Britain. A new study finds that the country that invented the industrial revolution two centuries ago reached "peak stuff" between 2001 and 2003. In the past decade, Britain has been consuming less water, building materials, paper, food (especially meat), cars, textiles, fertilizers and much else. Travel is down; so is energy production. The country produces less waste, too.

This analysis is not the product of data juggling by a free-market think tank. The author of the study is Chris Goodall, a fully paid-up environmental activist and parliamentary candidate for Brita
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CBRE Econometric Advisors forecasts 5.5 percent vacancy

The multihousing vacancy rate in 2011 isprojected to be 5.5 percent (on an annualized basis), down 60 basis points (bps) from a year ago and 190 bps from its 2009 peak.

"Apartment demand is benefiting from slight job growth as well as an expanding pool of potential renters," said Gleb Nechayev, senior managing economist, CBRE-EA. "With gross revenues surpassing their pre-downturn levels in Q3 2011, the U.S. apartment market has entered an expansion phase. Considering the strong pace of recovery in rent and occupancy, it is not surprising that new multihousing construction activity is also beginning to gain some momentum. We expect that multihousing completions in the U.S. will surpass 200,000 units in 2012. While the new supply will still
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Despite housing glut, REITs prosper

On a year-over-year basis, AvalonBay Communities saw FFO per share growth in Q3 of more than 19 percent, the highest growth rate in six years for the multifamily REIT that, as of the end of September, owned and managed 47,279 apartments on both coasts, with a handful in the Midwest. NOI growth was more than nine percent, the best growth rate for that metric in five years, driven by same-store revenue growth of 5.8 percent and a reduction in expenses.

The REIT's rate of annual growth as of the end of Q3 was 130 basis points greater than in Q2 and the highest since Q2 2007. And sequential growth of same store revenues was up a healthy 2.5 percent from Q2, driven by an average rental rate increase of 2.9 percent. Every region in which Avalon
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Drinking through a firehose: has data mining gone too far?

"Even traditional companies have discovered they can generate totally new lines of business by collecting and using their customers' information," says Andrea Matwyshyn, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton. From grocers to gas stations, retailers offer loyalty cards that track purchases. Visa has filed a patent for a method to deliver targeted online ads to consumers, based in part on their offline credit card spending. And through social media Websites like Foursquare, people bring information about their offline spending back into the online world.

Privacy advocates say that the collection of data has gone too far, exploiting consumers who have less and less control over how their personal information is doled out.
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Equity Residential to take stake in Archstone

The stake would be about half of the ownership held by the two banks and sets the clock ticking for the remaining owner, Lehman Brothers, to match it.

"A 26.5 percent stake gives us a seat at the table regarding making decisions and the long-term outcome of the portfolio," Equity Residential spokesman Martin McKenna said.

Lehman, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, has the right to match the offer and is in discussions with several potential partners including the Blackstone Group and Brookfield Asset Management, sources have said.

Archstone's three owners have not been able to agree with what to do with Denver-based Archstone, which owns about 77,084 apartment units. Under a restructuring plan reached last year, all three
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Gratitude as a business strategy

There's nothing wrong with expecting excellence, and taking steps to get it. The problem is, we tend to take excellence- and thoughtfulness, and kindness, and joyfulness- for granted.

When things go as we expect, we don't even notice or acknowledge it. Dennis Prager refers to this as the "broken tile" syndrome: look at a ceiling with one broken tile, and where is your eye naturally drawn To the broken tile, of course. Not to the hundreds of whole ones.

To see if this is true for you, think for a moment about your many contributions to the people around you. Do you get thanked enough for them Does the gratitude-to-criticism ratio you experience feel right to you

Gratitude deficit disorder: a global epidemic
Almost everyone I kno
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I don't understand what anyone is saying anymore

Abstractionitis
We have forgotten how to use the real names of real things. Like doorknobs. Instead, people talk about the idea of doorknobs, without actually using the word "doorknob." So a new idea for a doorknob becomes "an innovation in residential access." Expose yourself repeatedly to the extrapolation of this practice to things more complicated than a doorknob and you really just need to carry Excedrin around with you all day.

Acronymitis
This is a disease of epic proportions in the world of charity. I was at a meeting just two days ago at which several well-meaning staff members of a charity were presenting to their board, and the meat of their discussion revolved around the acronyms SCEA and some other one that began with "
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I spy with my little iPhone

Until the recent uproar over the discovery of Carrier IQ's analytics software running on a variety of mobile devices, including Apple iPhones and Google Android phones, however, most consumers failed to recognize that they also have little control over the software installed on the highly subsidized handsets they buy. Nor was it clear just how much of a security and privacy risk Carrier IQ's software creates by gathering and storing data about how and where a person's mobile phone is used.

Carrier IQ has positioned its software, installed on more than 141 million handsets worldwide, as a mobile agent that helps carriers improve service for wireless customers by providing data on customer usage patterns. These improvements include reducing
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Is multfamily's future in TOD?

The citizens of Seattle have just such an opportunity by encouraging development of dynamic pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods in the areas surrounding Sound Transit's light-rail stations. Nationally, these "new" neighborhoods are called transit-oriented developments (TODs). Locally, the Seattle Planning Commission has coined the phrase "transit communities."

In either case, the intent is to leverage the strong synergies between housing, shopping, socializing, affordability and mobility.

Area residents approved light-rail with the hope of providing a long-term alternative to automobile commuting and congestion. The installation of the several billion dollar infrastructure also allows the region to foster the type of development that impr
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Know when house rules violate lease

A: Your owner appears to be a little confused as to the meaning of a lease: It's a contract that binds both sides to its terms, as written. If one party to the lease wants to change or add to those terms, it must get the OK from the other party. Unless everyone agrees to vary the terms of the deal-which includes adding important conditions as to use and defaults (a violation that triggers a termination notice)- those changes are ineffective.

However, it's possible to put some "rules and regulations" in a document other than the signed lease. Commonly known as "house rules" in multi-unit complexes, these rules cover day-to-day aspects of the rental, such as use of the pool, laundry room and parking areas; operating hours for the manager's
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Lehman seeks financing for Archstone counterbid

Lehman, which owns 47 percent of Archstone, is in discussions with investors including Blackstone Group LP and Brookfield Asset Management Inc. to arrange financing, said the person, who asked not to be named because the negotiations are private. Equity Residential said Dec. 2 that it agreed to pay $1.33 billion to buy the interest from Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc, which together hold 53 percent of Archstone.

The agreement with Equity Residential, the Chicago-based landlord controlled by billionaire Sam Zell, sets up a fight for control of Archstone, which owned all or part of 434 apartment complexes in the U.S. and Europe as of June 30. The deal is contingent on Lehman declining to exercise a right of first offer on the bid. T
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Senior housing is booming, baby

In the third quarter of 2011 alone, 39 senior housing deals worth $5.5 billion were completed, primarily by real estate investment trusts that specialize in housing for the elderly. That figure includes independent-living and assisted-living communities, but not nursing homes.

The total value of senior housing deals in the quarter ended Sept. 30 was greater than the combined total in the previous two full years, according to the National Investment Center for the Seniors Housing & Care Industry in Annapolis, Maryland.

Philadelphia-based Brandywine Senior Living has participated in the consolidation frenzy. Brandywine, which had been owned by New York private equity firm Warburg Pincus L.L.C. since 2006, sold its 19 assisted- living faci
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Tenants trying again to buy Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village

The tenant association hopes to convert the adjacent complexes, with 11,232 apartments, into a condominium or cooperative under a plan in which residents could buy their apartments or remain as rent-regulated tenants. In what would be the largest conversion in the country, the tenants are seeking to preserve Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper's role as an affordable home for teachers, nurses, firefighters, small-business owners and others like them.

This time, the tenants have a deep-pocketed partner, and they are hoping that the lenders who control the property will sell it to them, rather than to another heavily leveraged owner who might try to displace longtime residents in favor of higher-paying tenants. Presumably, the price would be a
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The great shrinking state

Unable to afford Orange County's skyhigh rents, she opted for Portland, Ore. "A big motivator was that I lived with roommate after roommate after roommate," said McCluer, 30. "Friends said you could probably live on your own up here. The rent was a huge deal for me."

McCluer would like to move back, but it's still too expensive. "It's really difficult," McCluer said. "I've given myself one-and-ahalf to two years to save money."

Recent census figures show the state is losing more Californians like McCluer than it is attracting from other parts of the United States. And the trend toward outmigration is looking less like a blip than a long-term condition.

The proportion of Californians who had moved here from out of state reached a 100-y
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The latest cottage business: app fees

At a "nice" $3,500-per-month loft in the Mission, "80 people showed up for the open house," said Ms. Lamas, 23, who recently began working at a tech company in SoMa. "And the landlord said to me that he'd gotten 250 applications."

The cost of applying was $40, so if the landlord wasn't exaggerating, he grossed $10,000 in application fees.

Call it a deposit with no return.

Two years ago, during the recession, landlords had to lure applicants with deals, like a free month's rent. Today fees just to apply have become part of the city's overheated rental climate, where dubious behavior- by both landlords and renters-appears to be increasing.

Lamas searched hundreds of vacancy listings and ultimately visited 20 apartments,many charging a
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The ultimate question: Would your customers recommend you?

Peter Fader: Can you tell us what NPS stands for Those three letters are on everyone's mind these days, and a lot of businesses are being run by them.

Rob Markey: NPS originally stood for Net Promoter Score. It was designed as a way to help marketers, operations folks, call center operators and business leaders figure out the extent to which they were really meeting their objective of earning the loyalty of their customers. You get your Net Promoter Score by asking one simple question: How likely would you be to recommend my company, my product or my service to your friends, your colleagues or your family members Based on the answer to that question, we can then sort customers. Promoters are the people who are enthusiastically loyal to
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Through the eyes of the imagineers

Kimberly Scott, founder of Capture the Market, a real estate video production studio in Dallas, Texas, is hesitant to agree with such a trivialization. She might argue that when forging a tech-based business in the multifamily industry, there is a higher barrier to adaptation of new products and resistance to "new."

"Over the past eight years we've seen competitors come and go, both large and small," says Scott. "I wonder if it had to do with lack of knowledge or for want of a financially-sustainable model. What I do know is that research is key prior to entering this sector, but timing is everything."

Eight years is significant time for small business, but the last two-and-a-half-years have felt like a lifetime for Scott and
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Using social networks to improve operations

Then telephone surveys began to supplement mystery shopping. Today, digital technologies are supplanting both, with online customer surveys providing an exponentially greater number of performance snapshots per day.

A well-managed loop that links customer experience feedback with recommendations on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp, can boost service quality and operational performance, increase traffic and create more happy customers-people who crow about a retailer online for free, turning their friends into new customers too.

A new mini-industry has emerged using these techniques, known as "customer experience management," or CEM. Our company, Empathica-as well as a number of competitors- are providing customer feedbac
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When nothing works

As Bertie examined my elbow, I reminded him of everything I had done to try to fix my problem. When it began to hurt, I used ibuprofen. When that didn't work, we tried two injections of cortisone, six months apart. Meanwhile, I did physical therapy, tried ultrasound, used a brace, performed daily exercises, applied ice, and went to acupuncture and massage. Pushed to the edge, I even did an experimental therapy-a platelet-rich plasma injection, which had gained media attention because some high-profile athletes had used it. The shot was incredibly painful and only made my problem worse.

"Nothing has helped!" I complained.

"I have an idea," Bertie said. "Something we haven't yet tried."

"What" I hoped it wouldn't be too timeconsuming
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Your use of pronouns reveals your personality

The research: In the 1990s, James Pennebaker helped develop a computer program that counted and categorized words in texts, differentiating content words, which convey meaning, from function words. After analyzing 400,000 texts-including essays by college students, instant messages between lovers, chat room discussions, and press conference transcripts-he concluded that function words are important keys to someone's psychological state and reveal much more than content words do.

The challenge: Can insignificant words really provide a "window to the soul"

When we began analyzing people's writing and speech, we didn't expect results like this. For instance, when we analyzed poems by writers who committed suicide versus poems by tho
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The Closer

Back in the innocent days of 2007 or so, it was customary for experts to say that housing had led the recession and housing would lead us out.

Whatever measure of truth there may have been in that cliché, the reality is that by refusing to accept the real estate correction as the healthful and decades-overdue solution it is, America's leaders have created a new dynamic: Housing led us into the recession, and it continues to lead us into newer, deeper and more destructive recessions.

In November, Wharton School real estate finance professor Joseph Gyourko warned that the Federal Housing Authority is shaping up as the next likely target for a bailout. Gyourko's central argument is simple:

1. FHA has become a much larger and riskier
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