Lew Sichelman

While members of generation Y—Americans born between 1978 and 1994—have largely been set back by the economic downturn just as they entered the workforce, one report says a significant number are starting to spend big.
A bipartisan housing commission is calling for the complete elimination of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, plus a more targeted Federal Housing Administration that returns to its roots. The panel further says it is time to recognize the country’s changing demographics by placing a stronger federal emphasis on rental housing.
According to a newly released NAHB survey, buyers in 2013 are looking for bigger homes again, but also want energy-efficiency and plenty of storage.
Single-family housing starts are expected to rise 22 percent in 2013, according to a report from the NAHB’s convention in Las Vegas. “Housing is finally doing its job in leading the economy out of recession,” said David Crowe, NAHB’s chief economist.
Mobile dining and urban agriculture are two of the ways forward-thinking developers are welcoming vendors and gardeners through amenity packages. These edible community features were among a number of examples that can be incorporated into master planned communities that were advanced at the ULI Fall Meeting in Denver October 18.
The hydraulic fracturing of rocks is a way to extract natural gas from far below the ground. It has strong economic and land use implications, especially in the West, where the process is fairly new, but it is not without controversy.
Whether it’s a river or small trout stream, restaurants or open spaces, a farmers’ market or a music venue, anything that gives a project a sense of place will encourage social interaction, will lead to the ultimate goal of creating value.
The Gen Y generation is so large that it will “provide a steady flow” of apartment renters and home buyers for the next 10-15 years, a top real estate demographer said at the ULI Fall Meeting in Denver Oct. 17.
The outlook among the more than three dozen contributors to the semiannual ULI Consensus Forecast, released September 26, is that the commercial markets will not do as well in the coming three years as was thought in March, when the initial ULI forecast was published. For housing, however, forecasters are even more optimistic than they were six months ago.
While national statistics show gains, particularly for market-rate units, experts warn that in a few markets, there may be too much supply in the pipeline.
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