Construction Maison

Apartment rents for new leases in King and Snohomish counties jumped nearly 5 percent in the second quarter and almost 10 percent over the past 12 months, according to a new survey. In the second quarter, the average rent for new leases was $1,405, up $124 from a year ago, market- research firm Apartment Insights Washington reports . The firm tracks rents , vacancies and concessions at apartment complexes with at least 50 units. The annual rent increase for the latest period was the largest seen locally since Apartment Insights began tracking the market in 2005. It also is well ahead of the national average : Texas- based MPF Research said U.S. apartment rents soared in the second quarter and climbed 5. 2 percent annually , a 15-year high. Most Read Stories Unlimited Digital Access. $1 for 4 weeks. “While apartment rents are rising at a significant pace all across the country, the nation’s average price increase is being skewed quite a bit by the surging rents in the Western re...

House-flipping hit its highest levels last year since before the recession as investors seek to capitalize on rising home prices and a seller’s market with tight inventory. But the process is nothing like what you see on TV, where it looks like a home can be bought, gutted, renovated and resold in less than an hour – not including commercial breaks . The truth is often much messier, real estate professionals in Charlotte said. “It’s a lot easier to lose money in this business than it is to make it,” said Jeff Johnson, owner of NewPath Properties , which specializes in buying and rehabbing distressed properties . Still, that’s not deterring people from giving it a try in Charlotte. First-quarter figures from Attom Data Solutions show flips – defined as the same property selling twice in a 12-month period same year – made up more than 6 percent of sales in the Charlotte region, or 540 sales. House-flipping increased almost 4 percent from a year ago, though it remains well below the cit...

House-flipping hit its highest levels last year since before the recession as investors seek to capitalize on rising home prices and a seller’s market with tight inventory. But the process is nothing like what you see on TV, where it looks like a home can be bought, gutted, renovated and resold in less than an hour – not including commercial breaks . The truth is often much messier, real estate professionals in Charlotte said. “It’s a lot easier to lose money in this business than it is to make it,” said Jeff Johnson, owner of NewPath Properties , which specializes in buying and rehabbing distressed properties . Still, that’s not deterring people from giving it a try in Charlotte. First-quarter figures from Attom Data Solutions show flips – defined as the same property selling twice in a 12-month period same year – made up more than 6 percent of sales in the Charlotte region, or 540 sales. House-flipping increased almost 4 percent from a year ago, though it remains well below the cit...

There were nine of us living in my first flat in Paris. It was grand on the outside, with a trompe l’oeil and marble staircase in the entrance hall, but grimy and dark inside. Only three of my flatmates had full-time jobs, and they all smoked. All the lights in the hall were broken. I moved there from London nearly four years ago, during the gloomiest days of François Hollande’s presidency, long before the youthful reformer Emmanuel Macron took power this year. Economic growth at the time was weak, unemployment double that of the UK today, and polls showed two-thirds of French people thought the nation was in “decline”. My flatmates, who I found online, were all 25- to 35-year-olds from the provinces who had come to Paris to find work and, passing their days in our tiny kitchen, were victims of this faded France. Within rigid labour markets many struggled to find jobs, or the right jobs, and were frustrated and angry. They protested in the street, talked incessantly about politics a...

Find out when your favorite shows return—plus, every new series. Most Popular HBO/CBS/Sundance Channel/NBC/ABC Aug 25, 2017 The season of crammed DVRs and binge-watching is upon us again. Not surprisingly, the fall TV lineups reveal plenty of new pedigree programming. Shows like David Simon and George Pelecanos' HBO drama The Deuce and Jane Campion's SundanceTV miniseries Top of the Lake: China Girl will probably become as much a part of the zeitgeist as returning shows like ABC's Scandal ( back October 5 ) and AMC's The Walking Dead (October 22). Also, expect a smattering of shows about real Americans making a difference, be it Lifetime's retelling of the events surrounding the Flint water crisis (premiering October 28) or, out later this year, National Geographic Channel 's adaptation of journalist Martha Raddatz 's book The Long Road Home : A Story of War and Family . This includes fictional programming , like military drama s Valor ( premieres O...