Many in KC area are turning to apartment living (Kansas City: apartment complex, rental)

[xenokc]

Many in KC area are turning to apartment living - KansasCity.com (http://www.kansascity.com/2012/01/30/3400746/many-in-kc-area-are-turning-to.html#storylink=cpy - broken link)

Richard Penney, a 37-year-old biotech consultant who moved here from Nashville, Tenn., a year ago, is renting the good life at Briarcliff City Apartments in the Northland.

He could have easily bought a house — he pays more than $1,200 per month — but as a single guy who doesn’t know how long he’ll be in Kansas City, Penney opted for the flexibility of apartment living.

It’s also nice having that $5 limo service, one of the resident perks, to take him to the Power & Light District for a night out.

Is a national trend but hopefully in KC it will curb the sprawl. Is the perfect opportunity for the housing industry to focus on infill in urban hoods and inner ring burbs. Would love to see The City work on a master plan with developers to focus on _quality_ rental infill rather than more homes. The burbs are overbuilt as it is. Downtown has 95% rental occupancy yet has fairly high demand.

On the Plaza, too many apt buildings went condo over last several years. I'm guess some of those may go back to rental. JoCo could target denser living in downtown OP and along Johnson Drive instead of isolated apt buildings in W JoCo. Liberty could have a really cool town center if they focused on dense apt living rather than sprawled burbs.

[RadioSilence]

My apartment complex has more than a dozen buildings, and there is a waiting list for new tenants. My rent is close to the average cited in the article. I stay because of the unknown. I have a friend who bought a house north of the river, lost his job about a year later, found a new job 250 miles away, but can't sell his house. He pays both a mortgage on an empty house, and rent on his current apartment.