“The Orange County multifamily market is booming not only because of its innate strength, but because of a lack of alternative investments,” says Susank. “Though some investors are willing to sell and leave the market, the returns for those who remain still look better than just about any non-real estate investment out there.”
–Shane Shafer is a senior advisor for Sperry Van Ness in Irvine.
–John McDermott is a senior vice president for Sperry Van Ness responsible for overseeing the firm’s Irvine, San Diego, and Long Beach offices.
Affordable Fiasco An application process leads to a near-riot.
Bill Harris thought he was doing the right thing for the Hollywood Community Housing Corp., an affordable housing developer in Hollywood, Calif. As the group’s executive director, Harris wanted to limit the number of general applications for his newest housing project on La Miranda Avenue so that the development could include as many groups as possible from the diverse community. Little did he know that his approach would almost lead to a riot.
Harris handed 400 applications to members of each of the area’s ethnic groups and then held 150 for the general population. On the morning of general distribution, the line formed early, and as the day progressed, the crowd got bigger. Eventually, 3,000 people gathered, pushing and elbowing for one of the 150 applications. “We had police [officers] and police helicopters,” Harris says. “There was some shoving and people got a little excited. Eventually, the police decided people would get hurt and they shut it down.”
Harris chose to disperse the remaining applications a week later at another location, with help from police, and that went smoothly. Still, he can’t shake the memory of the first application day. “It speaks to the area’s lack of affordable housing,” he says. “It’s extremely unfortunate when you see older people competing with younger people for application. Folks aren’t always respectful when that many people get together.” —Les Shaver