Month: February 2018

Jerome Powell and Janet Yellen From the winter issue: Federal Reserve chairs have the power to put financial markets in a frenzy with a few seemingly harmless phrases. In June 2013, then-Fed Chair Ben Bernanke stepped to the microphone for a regular press conference and suggested the central bank might start winding down its bond-buying program…

(Credit: Pixabay, Pexels) Los Angeles, notorious for its lack of housing, is about to get more than 17,000 rental units this year. But that doesn’t mean affordability will improve. Instead, rents will rise and vacancies along with it, according to a new report from commercial brokerage Marcus & Millichap. Rents are expected to rise to…

Adam Neumann WeWork expects revenues to top $2.3 billion this year, the New York Times reported. The coworking startup is growing revenues quickly amid its rapid expansion to 20 countries and some 200,000 members. And backed by a $4.4 billion investment from Japanese technology group SoftBank, the company is expanding services into areas like gyms…

Residential buildings in downtown Los Angeles before 1978 (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) There are now 600,000 rent-stabilized units in Los Angeles, yet the city has still been called the least affordable of any in the country. Now, a group of tenant organizations are joining a statewide effort to repeal a California law that restricts the number…

Commons at Valencia Gateway, Conejo Corporate In separate joint ventures, Harbor Associates, a Long Beach-based investment firm, paid a combined $56 million for two suburban office buildings in Valencia and Thousand Oaks. Both properties will be renovated. In Valencia, Harbor teamed with Goldman Sachs Asset Management Private Real Estate. The pair paid Barings $33.1 million…

Adam Levine and his home, Harvey Weinstein and his home (Credit: Wikimedia Commons) Maroon 5 frontman and “The Voice” judge Adam Levine sold his home in the Holmby Hills neighborhood for $18 million, the same price he paid for it last summer. The French Regency-style home spans 9,200 square feet and includes a two-story guesthouse,…

From the winter issue:  Danielle Garofalo Chief Strategy Officer, Stribling & Associates What are you reading right now or what did you finish most recently? “A House in the Sky” by Amanda Lindhout and Sara Corbett. The book is about Lindhout’s life, and details the 15 months [the journalist] was held captive in Somalia. What spurred…

1642 San Pablo St (Credit: Google Maps) The country’s largest dormitory developer has proposed a 95-unit dorm for the University of Southern California’s medical center in Boyle Heights. American Campus Communities filed plans for the 134,000-square-foot structure, which would include some leasing space and open outdoor space. It would serve the school’s graduate students. The…

(Credit: Pexels) Housing starts nationwide jumped 9.7 percent in January over December, thanks largely to a 19.7 percent increase in residential rental and condominium starts — the biggest increase since December 2016. The annual pace of starts nationwide last month was 1.33 million, up from 1.21 million in December and up from 1.24 million last…