Stories of discrimination faced by black users of Airbnb have been common on the Internet lately, largely shared under the hashtag #Airbnbwhileblack. Airbnb has banned some hosts for hate speech and violating terms of service, but their response has overall been slow.
Micro-unit developments—new apartments that are 400 square feet or smaller—are sprouting up all over the country as cities try to cram more housing into their neighborhoods. New York City’s first micro-unit development opened this month and it’s controversial—even in a city where people already pay top dollar to live…
Some think that being poor is simple. You don’t have enough money to buy a lot of stuff, so you’re forced to buy less stuff. But that’s not really how it works. When you’re broke, you can’t do all the little things that will improve your budget over the long run. It actually costs more to be poor.
We’ve all heard stories about friends of friends who have braved New York City’s steep real estate prices by living in a walk-in closet, or a 200-square-foot water tower, or a converted brick pizza oven. Last week, bartender Alana Reali came face-to-face with the depressing shit show that is the New York housing…
For the first time since 2009, New York City is planning to add more beds in emergency and transitional shelters for victims of domestic violence. Domestic violence is believed to be one of the driving forces behind the city’s skyrocketing homelessness problem, along with mental illness and unemployment.
This is a new one: DNAInfo reports that the board of a pricey apartment building in Manhattan demanded to interview a prospective buyer’s minor child. The woman, Joyce Kacin, told the website that she feared she would have to comply with the request or lose a $25,000 deposit.
A real estate company in China is accused of hiring six HIV-positive people to "harass" residents into leaving a housing compound so it could be destroyed, paving the way for a profitable re-development. The HIV-positive people were apparently told to wave their "AIDS identity cards" at the residents to frighten them…
While the media might lead you to believe that single ladies spend their time knitting scarves for their imaginary children, we're actually much too busy snatching (GET IT) up a huge slice of the American Dream to waste our time with all that*. According to the National Association of Realtors, since the mid-1990s,…
You'll never whine about your fifth floor walk-up again. Or, you will, but now with a bit more perspective, hopefully.
If you're feeling too good about yourself this morning, please take a break from all that unnecessary happiness to feast your eyes on closets that are worth more than you are. Of course, you have to move to Los Angeles and sell your soul to get one of these doors to Narnia, but it's clearly worth it.
Once upon a time, a long long time ago (ok, a year and a half), I lived amongst the techies and burners of San Francisco. I'll always love that beautiful city for its breathtaking views and burritos, but Christ did all that chillness stress me the fuck out. I never felt more like a neurotic high-strung misfit than the…
Has your landlord ever banned you from having your significant other sleep over, and if so, was it legal? Depends where you live, but in the case of one redditor who rents a basement from a home owner who told him his girlfriend wasn't welcome, it's against the law — probably. (In Alberta, where he lives, tenant's…
Today in depressing housing-market news, YA author Francesca Lia Block could lose her home because the bank won't return her calls. The author of the Weetzie Bat books is underwater on her mortgage due to the recession. To make things more complicated, the mortgage is in her mom's name, and her mom is now dead. To…
For many of us, it already feels like the entire inside of our house is decorated with things from IKEA, so wouldn't it be convenient if you could take the next step and just buy an entire prefab house from IKEA? Well, soon that dream will be a reality. They've collaborated with Ideabox, an architectural firm, to…
Having a roommate can be a pain if she eats your food or lets her cat poop in your shoes. But for older single women, living with someone can actually be a blessing. And lots of ladies are going this route.
According to a new study, gay couples moving into an area can actually raise housing prices. But only if folks in that area are in favor of gay rights — if not, they have the opposite effect.
Should a leather enthusiast have disclosed his sex life before his neighbor moved in? Or should his neighbor just leave the carpet on? These are some of the difficulties of home ownership.
With the government itching to gracefully back out of the clusterfuck that is the American consumer loan industry, home loans are poised to get a lot more expensive and a lot less accessible. Home ownership is going to go the way of supper club membership, and unless you're a winsome red headed orphan whose pluck wins…
Christina Aguilera may now be dealing with one of the most difficult aspects of a breakup: real estate.
