“Stacked doghouses are not a favela – and favelas should not be hypothecated, anyway.”
We have these in Phoenix, too, though I have never toured them. They look to be 1,200sf homes on 1,400sf parcels – except of course they aren’t parcels – yet.
When the market soared the last time, we saw hundreds of apartment communities file public reports to become condominium communities, instead. Whatever else cheap mortgage money means, it means that Wall Street is betting against dirt.
That suggests to me that the tiny houses on tiny lots will soon become condominium plats, thus subject to hypothecation – mortgage financing. The smaller the homestead, the greater the greater-fool? So it would seem…
Christmas Brutality: The true story of Christmas? Joseph didn’t dump the baby and ditch Mary.
Beyond Bethlehem:
The Epoch Times: Trump Signs $2.3 Trillion Relief and Spending Bill, Says More Money to Come. I am told this is more 4D chess. It had better be.
The Palm Beach Post: Housing market trend heading to Florida: Single-family homes to rent, not buy.
Calculated Risk: Ten Economic Questions for 2021.
Monica Showalter: Trouble for Democrats: Rebellion in the California suburbs.
David Marcus: Dr. Fauci Admits He Has Treated The American People Like Children.
The Hill: Five GOP senators to watch in next month’s Electoral College fight.
American Greatness: An Essential Man: In this climactic battle of our decades-long culture war, we need to win – or be prepared to lose in ways beyond imagining.
John Daniel Davidson: 5 Big Things We Learned About Our Elites In 2020.
Jeffrey Lord: Soviet-Style Media Propaganda in America.
Andrea Widburg: An 18-year-old boy’s terrible revenge on a girl who never harmed him.
City Journal: Tell Only Lies: Americans are increasingly afraid to express themselves honestly.
Brian Brady says:
Wall Street is addicted to streams of income. Why should short-term leases be any different?
The actuaries at Stratton Oakmont can crunch the numbers and tell investors the expected duration of a new, one-year lease (my bet would be 28 months) and trade it off the one year T-bill. The “bet” then is the consumer behavior of the tenants.
It’s bookmaking 101. There is no need to convert to condos if the sum of the parts is greater than the whole lease and no way for Stratton Oakmont to lose.
Unless tenants stop paying the rent because of COVID-27
December 28, 2020 — 9:08 am
Greg Swann says:
This morning, I drove the community I talked to you about before, at Van Buren and Estrella Parkway.
I found it grim. The structures would be nice, if you could stand back far enough to see them. They’re tighter, even than cluster homes, and yet they still have apartment-style parking. They’d rent/sell better if each were stacked over its own garage.
It wouldn’t take much to make something like this work as a truly-cohesive community: Garages facing out and Morrocan-style sidewalk arteries within. They built that way there, vertically over narrow streets, to maximize shade – something the South and Southwest rarely get right.
December 28, 2020 — 11:13 am
Brian Brady says:
Think California Missions. Grand courtyard surrounded by clusters of homes around smaller courtyards and long covered walkways around the perimeter(s).
The “Grand” courtyard could host soccer games for the kiddos, weekly farmers’ marts, a concert on the weekend
December 28, 2020 — 1:12 pm
Greg Swann says:
Much better, IMO. It’s a hard needle to thread, because you’re maximizing every square inch of grade-level dirt.
The homes in Goodyear are single-level, and that’s not wrong: The future has bad knees. But getting more out of the land requires going vertical.
A solution I thought of a long time ago, for in-town infill or teardown parcels:
Build the whole parcel, edge to edge, as a street-level parking garage – with the pools and utilities taking up some of the space. Each home’s garage is as private as an SFR’s, and you would enter your home from the outside world by way of a private staircase.
The multi-story homes are detached and separated, emerging from the concrete slab of the roof of the parking structure. Parks, pools and views, all 20 or more feet up from street level – an urban mini-suburb built around pedestrian living – once you get home.
More Brian, you demanded? Except for the automobile entrances, you can build street-level retail all around the perimeter. 😉
December 28, 2020 — 1:36 pm
Brian Brady says:
Street-level retail ain’t completely dead. Why, there may even be room for a community bank 😉
BHB brainstorming are among my favorite comment streams
December 28, 2020 — 2:07 pm