(Credit: iStock)

Macerich is trying out a new program in its malls to make it easier for e-commerce brands to open bricks-and-mortar stores.

The $7 billion real estate investment trust – the country’s ninth-largest mall owner with some 51 million square feet of retail space – is cutting through the red tape of opening a store, Forbes reported.

Instead of a traditional lease – where the tenant is in charge of things like hiring a broker, securing city permits and installing their own build-out – Macerich is offering retailers co-tenancy agreements that come with the turnkey space.

“Consumers get excited about seeing anything new,” Kevin McKenzie, Macerich’s chief digital officer, told Forbes. “They always want to experience and taste anything new. We have a team that is constantly looking for new brands and ideas and concepts that we can feature.”

Tenants pony up a monthly fee and, in return, they get services from Macerich that includes foot-traffic analysis and other analytics tools that allow brands to see how a physical store impacts online sales in the same zip code.

The program, which Macerich is calling BrandBox, comes with a commitment of six to 12 months, as opposed to three to 10 years for a traditional lease.

Macerich is hoping the initiative gives it an inside track to up-and-coming retail concepts that will one day grow into traditional mall tenants. The mall company is rolling BrandBox out first at its Tysons Corner Center in Virginia outside Washington, D.C., and plans to expand the program to other properties in its portfolio.

Earlier this year the company announced a partnership with co-working company Industrious to turn unused retail space into flexible offices. [Forbes] – Rich Bockmann

(Credit: Airbnb, iStock)

The priciest Airbnbs aren’t in the country’s big coastal hubs.

The top spot goes to a home in Red Rock Ranch, Missouri, Forbes reported. The property is sprawled across 80 acres and can accommodate around 16 guests — for $12,000 per night.

(Credit: Airbnb)

Guests there also have access to a private chef and guns for target shooting. For comparison: that price tag, for one night, could pay for almost three years of rent on an average house in the area, the report said.

A yacht in Juneau is home to the second most expensive Airbnb, at $10,000 per night. That price includes a 95-foot yacht that can host up to six people — plus a hot tub and indoor fireplace.

(Credit: Airbnb)

And the third spot went to another $10,000-per-night rental in Hamilton, Illinois. The four-bedroom property is along the Mississippi River and spans an entire city block. It includes an optional private chef and an on-site gym, hot tub and pool, the report said.

(Credit: Airbnb)

The sky-high price tags are far steeper than the average luxury Airbnb, which costs $4,600 per night. On the other end of the spectrum, the cheapest rentals are in North Dakota and Iowa. The lowest cost per night is $899 in North Dakota, and the lowest cost per room is $150 in Iowa, according to Forbes.

But those willing to forgo a luxury rental can find even a $32 per night home in Phoenix, Arizona. [Forbes] — Meenal Vamburkar

(Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Birth.Movies.Death.)

It turns out the U.S. is a majority-suburban country, according to the responses to a new question in HUD’s biannual housing survey.

The results of the 2017 American Housing Survey (AHS), which included a “neighborhood description question” for the first time, found that 52 percent of respondents described their neighborhoods as suburban, just 27 percent described their neighborhood as urban and 21 percent as rural, according to City Lab.

The survey marks the first time government data has featured “suburban” areas distinct from “urban” areas. It also underscores a glaring hole: there is no official federal definition of a suburb. Shawn Bucholtz, who leads HUD’s Housing and Demographic Analysis Division, is campaigning for that to change, along with economist Jed Kolko.

Together, they cross-referenced the AHS results with existing government definitions and found that, in both the Census Bureau’s Urban Areas and the Office of Management and Budget’s Core-based Statistical Areas, there were more “suburban” respondents than “urban” ones. Even “central cities” contain major self-defined suburban populations.

For example, 18 percent of respondents in New York City described their neighborhood as suburban. The share of suburban respondents was 26 percent in Chicago and 45 percent in Los Angeles, while Miami turned out to be more than half suburban, at 53 percent.

The federal geographic definitions are up for discussion in the coming years. [City Lab]–Kevin Sun

Furniture warehouse fire in Woodridge. (Credit abc7 Chicago)

The federal government is ordering a man to pay $122.6 million for setting fire to a furniture warehouse in Woodridge.

The government this month filed a lien in that amount against Ruben Antonio Ochoa Cruz, who pleaded guilty to intentionally setting fire to the RoomPlace warehouse in a dispute with his boss over vacation time.

The four-alarm blaze burned the 325,000-square-foot industrial building to the ground, destroying the inventory of furniture and equipment belonging to RoomPlace and a number of delivery companies at the building, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Cruz is serving a six-year sentence in federal prison for the crime; it is unlikely he can repay the amount ordered. But the government could take any proceeds he makes from the sale of assets.

On April 21, 2016, Cruz’s boss told him he would be docked vacation time to cover two days he didn’t show up for work, though Cruz insisted he had been at work, according to the Tribune.

When his supervisor agreed to review security video to see if he had shown up for work, Cruz went into the warehouse, raised himself in a forklift, set fire to a piece of paper and dropped it on shelves full of furniture.

Screenshot of Chase Dream Board landing page (Credit: Pixabay)

JPMorgan Chase’s new customized Pinterest boards are meant to simulate a dream renovation, with only the smallest dose of reality.

The boards, generated by filling out a brief quiz, are stocked full of fantastical photos of luxury residences alongside DIY home-building advice and a smorgasbord of Chase financing options to pay for it all.

The marketing initiative is the result of a partnership between Chase Home Lending, Pinterest and the bank’s ongoing celebrity spokesmen, home renovation reality TV stars Jonathan and Drew Scott — better known as The Property Brothers. It’s part of the bank’s concerted effort to target first-time millennial homebuyers in need of cash for renovations.

At a recent event in New York City, Chase’s CEO Mike Weinbach explained the bank’s thinking: Millennials were behind about 30 percent of purchase loans this year with the vast majority of those transactions — to the tune of about 90 percent — being for existing homes.

In a later interview, Sean Grzebin, managing director and head of Consumer Originations at Chase Home Lending, said the partnership was launching amid “the most competitive market I’ve seen in 22 years.”

As interest rates rise, the refinancing market is shrinking too. The Mortgage Bankers Association’s chief economist told the Washington Post in June that traditional lenders may not have been profitable as of the end of 2018’s first quarter. Over the summer, Wells Fargo laid off 650 employees from its retail and mortgage servicing businesses, and, in October, JPMorgan Chase’s layoffs hit 400 employees from its consumer mortgage lending business.

The answer, Chase’s home lending group hopes, lies in easing lending rules and pinners (the nickname for Pinterest users).

Grzebin said Chase customers “can get into a house with less than 3 percent down,” as opposed to the oft-repeated conventional wisdom that homeownership requires a 20 percent downpayment, and the initiative with Pinterest is just one more way of getting the banks offerings in front of new, “younger” customers.

According to Chase’s internal stats, about 17,000 people have used the quiz in the first 60 days and the top lending selection for financing has been a home equity line of credit (HELOCs). Cash-out refinancing was the second.

The number of U.S. homeowners tapping into both types of home-equity loans jumped notably early in the year.

Some financial advisers have called American’s reticence to borrow against their homes “a long-memory issue,” but Chase’s Grzebin doesn’t agree. “People are not nervous about it,” he said. But they do seem to need some reassurance, which is where celebrities like The Property Brothers come in.

Celebrities from Paris Hilton to boxer Floyd Mayweather have lent their star power to financial products as varied as home improvement loans to exchange-traded funds (ETF) in recent years. And earlier this year, Goldman Sachs appointed former “Bachelorette” JoJo Fletcher while State Street Global Advisors brought on actress Elizabeth Banks.

During the New York City event, Jonathan Scott recalled Chase customers who’ve come up to him on the street since the brothers starting working with the bank.

“My favorite part of the whole partnership,” is telling starstruck fans “I know your pin,” he joked.

A row of tents in Downtown L.A. in August 2017 (Credit: iStock)

Homelessness is getting worse in Los Angeles despite economic indicators that say otherwise.

In Los Angeles County, officials released a statement in May announcing that the homeless population dropped for the first time in four years, but the number of people experiencing homelessness for the first time in L.A. actually spiked 16 percent from last year, to 9,322, Bloomberg reported. The increases comes in spite of a booming economy for the city, where unemployment is reaching record lows and millions of dollars of investment keep pouring in.

Some of the problem has to do with the rising costs of housing as well as slow wage growth.

A Zillow report from last year found that the number of people experiencing homeless in L.A. increases by 2,000 when rents jump up by 5 percent. In Seattle, a similar study from consulting firm McKinsey & Co. found that rises in housing costs are strongly correlated with homelessness.

Last year, the city also provided 5,000 fewer beds for the homeless than in 2011. About two-third of the state’s 134,000 homeless remained unsheltered in January 2017, reflecting the highest rate in the country.

Earlier this year, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a plan to spend $20 million building emergency homeless shelters across the city. Two have already opened in Downtown L.A. and Hollywood. [Bloomberg] – Natalie Hoberman

Philip Krim (Credit Getty, iStock)

Casper co-founder and CEO Philip Krim thinks the retail apocalypse will discriminate between good and bad.

“There’s certainly not a death of retail, there’s just a death of bad retail,” Krim told the Wall Street Journal in a recent interview. His definition of bad retail is a store experience where customers aren’t enjoying themselves.

His prime example? Most mattress stores.

“Before Casper came along, you had to go to bad retail [to buy a mattress] and you had to deal with a commissioned salesperson, fluorescent lights, in an environment where you didn’t feel comfortable,” he said.

“Retail is increasingly the world of the haves and the have nots,” he later added, noting that beyond creating a good environment, the ability to toggle back and forth between e-commerce, retail and wholesale businesses will be the key to retailers’ success.

After all, “consumers don’t bifurcate or segment their world like that,” said Krim. [WSJ]–Erin Hudson

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First comes love, then comes marriage, next comes baby in the baby carriage and free land to boot from the Italian government—provided its your third child.

The Italian government has proposed giving land to families who have a third child between 2019 and 2021 for a 20-year period, according to Forbes. The proposal is meant to encourage population growth and agricultural production.

The territories would be located in state-owned areas of Southern Italy, a region that has long struggled to recover from the 2008 financial crisis and been most impacted by unemployment.

The lands are worth an estimated 9.9 billion euros overall, and only married couples would be eligible for the program.

A Knight Frank report from earlier this year found that Americans interested in buying a second home are increasingly looking to Italy. [Forbes] – Eddie Small

(Credit: iStock)

The buyer of a storage unit inadvertently landed the deal of a lifetime.

A man bought a storage unit from “Storage Wars” reality TV star Dan Dotson at an auction for $500 and later discovered it contained an unopened safe holding $7.5 million, according to the New York Post.

The news came out after the man’s wife approached Dotson at another auction and explained what they found.

The former owner of the unit later contacted the couple through an attorney offering them $600,000 in exchange for returning the money. The new owners declined at first and eventually settled on giving back $6.3 million and keeping $1.2 million. [NYP] — Erin Hudson

Jeff Bezos (Credit: Getty Images and Pexels)

Public officials across the country are questioning whether they’ll sign nondisclosure agreements in the future after facing some backlash surrounding the secrecy around Amazon’s HQ2 search.

It’s not uncommon for companies looking to land tax breaks and other incentives to require local officials to sign NDAs as part of economic-development deals. But as part of its high-stakes search for a second headquarters, Amazon required many of the 238 bidders to sign one-page agreements that prohibited local officials from revealing nonpublic, confidential information the company disclosed in the process, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“Unfortunately that’s our world …The companies we’re dealing with are requiring us not to talk about it,” explained Jeff Finkle, president of the International Economic Development Council, a group that represents economic-development officials across the country. “If you don’t play by their rules, you lose.”

Some officials said the NDAs Amazon required them to sign looked standard, though one consultant told the Journal they stood out because they renewed after three years, whereas most NDAs last only three to five years or until a project is complete.

In some cities, private developers were required to sign NDAs. And in Indianapolis, local officials even required waitstaff and a hotel concierge to sign confidentiality forms ahead of a visit in March from Amazon executives.

Amazon pointed out that the company didn’t tell cities not to publicly disclose the details of their proposals, though many did so in order to protect their competitive advantage.

“What could you say publicly that would actually be helpful in some way, other than that we’re working on it?” said Stephen Moret, chief executive of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, who led the state’s winning bid. “Had there been no NDA, our public comments would have been the same.”

In New York, lawmakers on both the city and state levels said they plan to propose legislation that would ban public officials from signing NDAs with private corporations in economic-development deals. [WSJ] – Rich Bockmann

HomeShare CEO Jeff Pang and a converted bedroom in Downtown Los Angeles

To save money in expensive cities like Los Angeles, renters have long subdivided apartments, willing to sacrifice comfort in order to find a decent place to live. Now, a cottage industry has taken that necessity to an extreme.

Bunk beds, “sleeping pods,” and temporary room partitions are becoming popular with landlords and renters amid California’s tight and pricey housing market, according to the Los Angeles Times. Some renters will even squeeze into a space if the building comes with attractive amenities.

The number of people per housing unit has been on the decline nationally, but in California the rate has increased from 2.79 per unit in 1990 to 2.97 this year. Median rents in L.A. County are around $2,442 per month, compared to the national median of $1,553 per month.

San Francisco-based company HomeShare contracts with landlords to match residents with people looking for partitioned rooms, and rents out partitions. The company will also transfer residents to other units if things don’t go well with roommates. Customers pay a monthly fee for the service.

Christopher Cacho, a recent graduate who recently moved to L.A., went through HomeShare and now pays $950 a month for a an 11-foot by 8-foot space in a Glendale apartment building, according to the Times. In his case, he opted for the smaller space in exchange for the building’s amenities.

The firm Up(st)art, signs multiyear leases for houses, then outfits them with amenities for artists, and adds bunk beds or sleeping pods, starting at $700 a month. That includes acting and dancing classes, as well as use of in-home music recording and photo studios. [LAT] — Dennis Lynch 

Terminal Stores at 271 11th Avenue and California State Teachers’ Retirement System CEO Jack Ehnes (Credit: Curbed NY and CalSTRS)

U.S. public pension funds are pushing for more exposure to riskier, opportunistic real estate investments to help close their funding gaps.

American public plans have increased their allocations to opportunistic investments by a measure of six times between 2006 and 2016, according to an analysis by CEM Benchmarking cited in the Wall Street Journal. During that same time, exposure to core properties has remained flat.

Pension funds are moving toward riskier deals as rising values have made it harder to find attractive investments.

“Five years ago, you really could have thrown darts and had a pretty successful portfolio,” said Shawn Quinn of Wilshire Private Markets, which advises institutional clients.

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System has a target of putting 20 percent of its real estate portfolio, or about $5.7 billion, into opportunistic real estate investments. A spokesperson for the fund said it currently doesn’t meet that target.

An official at CalSTRS said the fund looks to earn 13 percent to 30 percent on opportunistic deals, compared to somewhere between 6 percent and 9 percent on core investments. The fund recently teamed up with L&L Holding Co. and Normandy Real Estate Partners to buy the Terminal Stores warehouse for $900 million.

All told, public and private pension funds had about $135 billion invested in opportunistic vehicles as of 2016, according to CEM Benchmarking research, which was sponsored by Nareit.

Pension funds took huge losses on their real estate investments during the financial crisis, but they’re now under increasing pressure to fill funding gaps. Governments have unfunded commitments estimated by the Boston College Center for Retirement Research totaling $1.6 trillion, while Moody’s Investor Services puts the figure at $4 trillion. [WSJ] – Rich Bockmann

R3 Lofts in Marina del Rey

California Landmark Group’s 68-unit apartment building in Marina del Rey opened last year, slated as a condominium.

But times and demand has changed. The Westside firm completed the $30 million R3 Lofts development at 4091 Redwood Avenue as a rental building. The firm, which first filed plans for the project in 2014, filed its latest paperwork with the city last week that formally recognizes the rental conversion.

CLG’s R3 Lofts also includes creative office space on its lower floors, as well as a gym and rooftop pool.

CLG could be betting on the rental market maintaining strength. Rent growth in Los Angeles has been strong compared to many markets in the country, including top markets like New York City.

But other developers have gone in the opposite direction, searching for profit. In North Hollywood, developer Leon Kaplan in July decided to convert a planned 48-unit rental project over to condos.

La Plaza Cocina is set to open with special programming next year. (Courtesy of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes)(From left: John Echeveste and Gloria Molina)

Any true Angeleno will tell you one of the biggest parts of Los Angeles culture and cuisine is its Mexican food. Now, the city plans to honor that contribution.

A museum dedicated specifically to Mexican food will open next year Downtown, at LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, at 501 North Main Street, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Called La Plaza Cocina, it will be the first such museum and teaching kitchen in the United States.

The development team includes Trammell Crow Company, High Street Residential, the Principal Real Estate Investors, LA Plaza, Cesar Chavez Foundation and L.A. County. The 2,500-square-foot project is an expansion of Trammell Crow’s La Plaza Cultura Village, a $140-million mixed-use complex that has 355 apartments.

The programming will include exhibits, classes, lectures, demonstrations and a state-of-the-art test kitchen for hands-on lessons with professional chefs.

The site will also come with rentable space for meetings, events and pop-up restaurants, as well as leasable space for Mexican food vendors that will feature audiovisual capabilities for broadcasts.

The museum’s calendar for next year already includes a meet-and-greet event with published chefs and other events. An interactive mixology class featuring mezcal cocktails, and a cooking class centered on food geared for Christmas will also be offered. [THR] — Gregory Cornfield

From left: Robert Reffkin, Avi Dorfman, and Ori Allon (Credit: iStock)

Four years ago, tech entrepreneur Avi Dorfman sued Compass and CEO Robert Reffkin, claiming they implemented his ideas and then cut him out of the action. It turns out Dorfman is aiming to collect nearly $200 million from the firm, recently valued at $4.4 billion.

Dormfan’s specific monetary claim — which hadn’t been disclosed publicly — was revealed during a hearing last month in New York Supreme Court. At the hearing, lawyers for the SoftBank-backed brokerage disputed Dorfman’s claim that he is entitled to a 15 percent stake of the company at founding, according to a transcript of the court appearance. Using back-of-the-napkin math, sources said that 15 percent stake would have been diluted to around 4 percent of the company’s shares after multiple fundraising rounds.

“We believe Mr. Dorfman has a very strong claim as one of the founders of Compass,” his attorney, Arun Subramanian, told The Real Deal. “We look forward to having the evidence heard by the Judge and a jury.”

Dorfman sued Reffkin in 2014, claiming the chief executive used a concept they worked on together in 2012 as the basis of a company that later became Compass. At the time, Compass had just raised a $40 million Series B round that valued the startup at $360 million. The original suit did not specify damages, and subsequent court documents redacted the amount.

Both sides agree that in 2012, Reffkin offered Dorfman a salary of $80,000 plus a 2.5 percent stake in Compass. But Dorfman contends Reffkin later reneged on the offer, while Compass maintains that Dorfman turned the offer down in order to take a job at a hedge fund.

In a statement, Compass disputed Dorfman’s claim that he’s entitled to any money.

“Having spurned multiple offers of employment to join Compass in the early stages, it’s clear that Dorfman is now just seeking a do-over of that decision,” the company said.

In September, Compass raised $400 million from SoftBank and Qatar Investment Authority at a $4.4 billion valuation. Wellington, IVP and Fidelity also participated in the Series F, which gave Compass a total capital raise of $1.2 billion.

In 2016, the Manhattan Supreme Court ruled that Dorfman could continue to call himself a co-founder of Compass. The ruling was in response to Reffkin’s counterclaims, which alleged Dorfman had improperly presented himself as instrumental to Compass’ early fundraising and that he referred to himself as a Compass co-founder on his LinkedIn page.

722 S Ardmore Avenue, Los Angeles (Credit: Google Maps)

A decade ago, plans for a Koreatown apartment building included 66 residential units and a helicopter landing pad on the roof. But nothing materialized in the ensuing years, and eventually the property changed hands.

Now, the new owner, Chae Young Ma, appears to be moving forward with a development. Ma, who is the registered owner behind ESLM Property LLC, wants permission to tear down an existing three-story apartment building at 722 South Ardmore Avenue, according to a filing from the Department of Building.

Ma, who could not be reached for comment, acquired the property in 2014 for $4.7 million. Before that, records show Andy Ko wanted to build a 12-story complex with 66 residential units. It would also include a recreation room and basement parking at the property. Another feature would be a helicopter landing pad on the roof, according to the filing.

Despite securing approvals, Ko, acting through an LLC, never built anything on the site.

In Los Angeles, securing entitlements can be a lengthy process for many developers. That has helped foster a new market for entitled properties, where owners can sell their shovel-ready sites at a premium to new owners who would rather avoid dealing with the process altogether.

Many developers in the city are also flocking to Koreatown for its multifamily projects, considering the area’s dense developments and proximity to transportation hubs. Jamison is among the bigger apartment developers in the area, and in recent years has helped dramatically change the neighborhood’s offerings.

(Credit: iStock)

So-called “granny flats,” which have been touted as a way to help combat Los Angeles’ and the state’s housing shortage, have also been able to operate by mostly side-stepping existing building codes.

In L.A., that may soon change.

This week, city Planning Commission will review proposed legislation aimed at regulating those secondary units — which homeowners could build on their property — signaling the city might finally establish clear guidelines for the process.

The laws for regulating Accessory Dwelling Units — their official name — have been in flux since December 2016, when the Planning Commission first reviewed an initial draft of the ADU ordinance. The document since has gone through several review stages, public comment and amendments through various levels of government.

In its most recent iteration, the proposed ordinance would allow for secondary units of up to 1,200 square feet. That would comply with California law. A much earlier version of the measure would have limited that to 640 square feet.

It also could allow for loosened restrictions on where the granny flats could be built. Officials have been debating whether to ban ADUs on hillsides areas that are prone to fire and other dangers. Some, such as City Council member David Ryu, are in favor of a ban on such construction, while others, such as city Planning Commissioner Renee Dake Wilson, argue it is unnecessary.

Last November, Mayor Eric Garcetti said that one solution to fight the city’s housing shortage is with granny flats. The mayor, who’s been a longtime supporter of homeowners building secondary units in their backyard, said there could be an additional 50,000 more units if only 10 percent of homeowners would take on the challenge.

Planning Department staff has recommended limiting ADUs in certain hillside areas. Those areas would include Bel Air and Beverly Crest communities, the Bird Streets and Laurel Canyon. Opponents of that measure argue that the measure would protect those upscale neighborhoods, and allow for ADUs in less affluent  locations.

Approximately 6.5 percent of all single-family zoned lots in the city would be restricted, compared to about 28 percent if a granny flat ban was imposed. More than 3,000 granny flats have been built in L.A. in the last two years, according to the city. Officials received about 300 to 350 permit applications per month, Curbed previously reported.

Should the commission sign off on the legislation, the ordinance will still have to go to City Council for final approval.

From left: Jason Purvis, Senior Managing Director, Granite Properties and Katharine Lau, senior director of real estate at Industrious

Co-working firm Industrious, which already has three locations in Los Angeles, is expanding into Glendale.

The company has inked a deal for 24,000 square feet at Granite Properties’ office tower, 500@TheBrand in Glendale.

The space will be located on the 20th and 21st floors of the building at 500 N. Brand Boulevard. The space is slated to open in June 2019, according to a joint release.

Granite’s @TheBrand location includes two adjacent office buildings — the 431,800-square-foot structure at 500 N. Brand Boulevard, and a 307,400-square-foot building at 550 N. Brand Boulevard. The two buildings are connected by outdoor space that was recently completed.

The location will be Industrious’ eighth in California. It has 55 nationwide.

In L.A., Industrious has partnered with other firms like EQ and Rios Clementi Hale Studio to bring up to 140,000 square feet of co-working space to the Howard Hughes Center campus.

Glendale, however, was home to a big non-co-working office deal this month, when Beacon Capital Partners paid $160 million for a 22-story building on Brand Boulevard. Glendale also saw one of the county’s top office investments in October when Harbor Associates and Belay Investment Group acquired the Glendale Gateway at 700 N. Central Avenue, for $28 million.

Los Angeles is expected to see even more co-working space, including another 212,000-square-foot site soon, as WeWork is reportedly considering the biggest lease near South Park.

(Credit: iStock)

As interest rates climb and salary growth stalls, borrowers are taking cash out against their homes in volumes not seen in over a decade.

Close to $14.6 billion was withdrawn from home equity across the country during the third quarter, as more than 80 percent of borrowers chose to take out cash against their homes, according to The Wall Street Journal. However, these figures are still well below rates seen before the financial crisis, when borrowers cashed out over $80 billion for three consecutive quarters in 2006.

Homeowners often seek to refinance their homes to retire their previous loans, and cashing out can be used to fund renovations or retire a college debt. The economy’s growth is driving up housing prices, but leaving worker salaries growing at a slower rate, so many borrowers are turning to the cash stored within their homes.

“I don’t have that much cash on hand,” Mandy Whitworth, a resident of Dallas, told the Journal. “It allowed me to pull out equity from the home to reinvest in the repairs and addition.”

It follows a report this month that found home loan application volume fell to its lowest point since December 2014. [WSJ] — David Jeans  

2017 W. Temple Street and 10209 N. Samoa Avenue

During the Thanksgiving holiday week, developers filed for just two residential projects under 50 units in Los Angeles.

The larger one, in Westlake, seeks a number of bonuses through the city’s Transit Oriented Communities program, which provides such incentives for building affordable units near transit options. The previous week saw four projects under 50 units filed.

2017 W. Temple Street | Westlake | 40 units

Beverly Hills-based developer Mark Haloossim filed for this project on a corner lot at North Mountain View Avenue. The 28,140-square-foot building would be six stories tall and include four units set aside for “extremely low income” renters. The project would include a gym and a roof deck. Property records show that Haloossim purchased the property in 2014 for $745,000.

Westlake has seen a string of similarly scaled projects over the last year or so. Westlake resides between two neighborhoods that have seen a strong uptick in development in recent years: Koreatown and Echo Park. Earlier this month, Schon Tepler Group filed for a 42 unit project about a mile northwest on Temple Street.

10209 N. Samoa Avenue | Tujunga | 11 units

The smaller of the two residential projects filed last week would be three stories and replace a four-unit apartment building. Developer Angel Samvalian, based in La Crescenta, picked up the property in 2008 for $500,000, records show. Tujunga also saw a 14-unit project filed earlier this month that would replace two detached homes.