The Observation Deck

From the peedee:

Apartment occupancy and rent levels are expected to improve slightly in the Greater Cleveland market in 2006, according to a report by Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Brokerage Co. The report said the market's vacancy rate will drop by two-tenths of 1 percent, to 6.4 percent. Increasing occupancy will lead to a 1.7 percent increase in average asking rent, to $700 per month. Demand will rebound most strongly in Lakewood, the report said. Based on supply and demand indicators, Greater Cleveland ranked 38th out of 42 apartment markets Marcus & Millichap studied, down two spots from last year. Orange County, Calif., ranked first, followed by Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Las Vegas.

John:

Two years ago I spoke to a young woman who moved to a Gold Coast apartment from Pittsburgh to reduce overhead costs and start up a home consulting business. Within a year, she convinced two other couples from Pittsburgh to do likewise - using the cheap rent, above average amenities to incubate their business.

Lakewood is a value proposition inner ring that can compete favorably with second and third tier urban zones.

The Gold Coast with its rentals is clearly something to market along these lines.

The Lakewood Observer is an inexpensive way to do this, especially now that the paper is a Google News source.

I have talked to Steve Calhoun about how we might do such positioning.

I would urge all of us to seize the opportunity, to heap up data, identify successful transplants, and assemble sources and quotes, deploy local intelligence to move the meme into the world.

Let's get some positive rental/recruitment stories on done for the paper.

Kenneth Warren