A place to call home

It seemed like a great idea at the time: Rent a fabulous apartment and spend a week living like a Parisian.

First of all, look at all the money we would save with four of us staying in an apartment instead of pricey hotels, then doing our own cooking to avoid expensive restaurants and cafés where even a café crème costs $8 these days.

Of course, it didn’t turn out quite as blue sky as we had planned. There were a few bumps along the way, a broken toilet being the most serious, but all in all it turned out well. Read more » »

Apartment rentals slow down dramatically

The pace of apartment rental in Dallas-Fort Worth has ground nearly to a halt this year.

And the dramatic slowdown in apartment demand in North Texas has left industry analysts scratching their heads.

“It’s pretty ugly,” said Greg Willett of apartment consultant M/PF YieldStar. The latest leasing numbers were released Thursday.

“Results for the second quarter fell way below expectations,” he said, with virtually no increase in apartment rentals.

For the first half of 2007, net apartment leasing has added up to only about 300 units. Compare that with the more than 7,000 net apartments leased in the first six months of 2006.

Mr. Willett blames a combination of homebuilder giveaways and for-rent homes for stealing the apartment market’s thunder. Read more » »