Multi Housing News August 2012 : Page 25

READ MORE are hotspots to watch. Properties in these areas are “very gritty and still affordable, but the potential is huge,” says Brenneke. ences of residents in cities like Portland and Seattle and why apartments could remain strong there, regardless of what happens in single family. “Seattle has actually become one of the cities on the West coast where you want to live in the core, and Portland may be going this direction as well,” says Smith. “People Þ Shifting interest, attitudes Like the rest of the country, the Pa-cifi c Northwest has seen an realignment in people’s perspectives of single family homeownership versus renting, especially within the younger demographic. Yet it re-mains an open question if a renewed pref-erence toward renting can last, especially in high-rent markets and submarkets. “The interesting thing to look at going forward,” notes Smith, “is whether, with rents increasing, that will translate into some of these renters being taken away from apartments and made into purchas-ers for single family homes.” Smith also points to a dramatic shift in values brought on not only by the most re-cent recession, but also by unique prefer-ences among those in Generation Y. “It used to be, you’d get out of college and the goal was to buy a house. Your parents preached it; everybody would say that’s what you should do,” says Smith. “Generation Y, they’re not owners. They tend to like to be renters. They don’t own a lot. They want to be mobile. They want to live in urban neighborhoods.” Tom Brenneke believes the change that has occurred is the natural result of a pre-viously fl awed and naïve cultural mindset, and that the pragmatism of renting will keep it popular well into the foreseeable future. “We’ve had an entire generation of fi rst time homebuyers witness the stark real-ity that home prices can go down,” says Brenneke. “Politicians are fi nally beginning to appreciate that past liberal housing poli-cies that encouraged homeownership ‘for all’ did a disservice to many who really could not afford it. I believe the pendulum is swinging in favor of rentals and will con-tinue to do so in the years to come.” In terms of specifi c regional attributes that could keep the high supply of inven-tory afl oat, Smith notes the unique prefer-want to live in this downtown core. They want the urban amenities. They want to be able to walk; they want to be able to bike, despite our weather. They don’t really want to live in the suburbs as much.” MHN To comment on this story, e-mail Philip Shea at pshea@multi-housingnews.com Our goal is helping you maintain satisfied residents. That’s why you can order online anytime and get free next-day delivery* on our inventory of over 22,000 products. You can even depend on us for your product installations † and to help manage your property improvement projects. Delivered by professionals. For professionals. FREE. $25 OFF your first online order. hdsupplysolutions.com | 1-888-431-3009 ADV-12-6473 ‡ * On most orders to most areas. †Installation services are available in select markets. Please call for details. ‡Minimum $250 order. One-time use per customer. Cannot be combined with any other discount offer. Tax, freight, installation, special orders, fabrication orders, and renovation orders are excluded. Offer valid on online orders placed with hdsupplysolutions.com only. Offer only valid on first online order placed with hdsupplysolutions.com. © 2012 HDS IP Holding, LLC. All Rights Reserved. www.multi-housingnews.com | August 2012 25

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