High Vacancy Rates Research Articles

Newbuild gentrification, tele-urbanization and urban growth: placing the cities of the post-Communist South in the gentrification debate

This paper explores new-build developments in Tbilisi, Georgia. Based on interviews with developers and with residents and neighbours of new-build developments, we examine the burgeoning of new-build housing projects in a lower middle income post-Communist country. By doing so, we respond to Lees’ (2012) recent call for the exploration of new horizons in gentrification research, which would allow us to transcend the boundaries established by Global-North theorizations – such as those surrounding “new-build gentrification”. While theoretically tantalizing, interpreting the observed developments through this lens, which a superficial observation of the phenomenon might encourage, is not fruitful. Instead, the case of Tbilisi illustrates the need for an appropriate assessment of context: rather than representing a revanchist return to the city of the middle classes, new-builds in Tbilisi appear, largely, to accommodate demographic growth and “deposited” diaspora capital. This, in turn, leads to intense rates of construction despite high vacancy rates – a process which could be viewed as a form of remote-controlled urban growth, or tele-urbanization.

Long-Term Vacancy in the United States

Because housing is durable, the housing supply is slow to adapt to declines in demand. This paper uses long-term vacancy -- defined as nonseasonal housing units that have been vacant for an unusually long period of time -- to quantify the extent of excess supply in the housing market. I find that long-term vacancy is less than 2 percent of all nonseasonal housing units and accounts for only one quarter of the aggregate increase in nonseasonal vacancy from 2001 to 2011. Thus, at the national level, excess supply is considerably less extensive than indicated by traditional measures of vacancy. However, the stock of long-term vacant housing is concentrated in a small number of neighborhoods that do have appreciably high long-term vacancy rates. Some of these neighborhoods have characteristics suggesting that excess supply is related to overbuilding during the housing boom, while others have characteristics that are symptomatic of persistently weak housing demand.

Long-Term Vacant Housing in the United States

Because housing is durable, the housing supply is slow to adapt to declines in demand. This paper uses long-term vacancy—defined as nonseasonal housing units that have been vacant for an unusually long period of time—to quantify the extent of excess supply in the housing market. I find that long-term vacancy is less than 2 percent of all nonseasonal housing units and accounts for only one quarter of the aggregate increase in nonseasonal vacancy from 2001 to 2011. Thus, at the national level, excess supply is considerably less extensive than indicated by traditional measures of vacancy. However, the stock of long-term vacant housing is concentrated in a small number of neighborhoods that do have appreciably high long-term vacancy rates. Some of these neighborhoods have characteristics suggesting that excess supply is related to overbuilding during the housing boom, while others have characteristics that are symptomatic of persistently weak housing demand.

Pre- and post-delinquency behavior: cross-neighborhood variation in New York City

This study examines whether and how mortgage default risk and the resolution process of defaults interact with neighborhoods where homeowners reside. It uses a unique data that matches household information from the Center for New York City Neighborhoods (CNYCN) with a variety of census tract data. Findings suggest that loan-related triggers of mortgage distress (e.g., payment adjustment) are more significant in neighborhoods with higher price depreciation and higher vacancy rates. With respect to post-delinquency behavior, distressed homeowners residing in neighborhoods with higher house prices tend to underutilize CNYCN services, controlling for their distance to service providers. Along with strong housing market performance, the concentration of Black/African-Americans in a neighborhood is likely to contribute to less successful client outcomes.

International Direct Real Estate Risk Premiums in a Multi-Factor Estimation Model

We estimate international risk premiums for North and South Asia and US direct real estate by using a pooled-panel multi-factor least squares model. Data for the paper are from JLL REIS-Asia and the Russell-NCREIF Property Indexes. Our results, based on the Geltner and Miller (2007) 1st and 4th order autoregressive de-smoothing models, affirm the existence of appraisal smoothing in the direct real estate market returns. Secondly, our findings affirm that the true historical volatility of autoregressive lagged de-smoothed returns is a reasonable estimate of international direct real estate risk premiums. Thirdly, we find that changes in macroeconomic and real estate variables explain the office and retail returns more than the residential returns. There is also a high vacancy rate risk premium that we attribute to country-specific, institutional environmental factors. Furthermore, the South Asia direct real estate risk premium is found to be higher than that for North Asia. Moreover the risk premiums for North and South Asia are higher than that for the US. Finally, our results show that appraisal smoothed returns significantly underestimate the international direct real estate risk premiums for the sampled Asia markets and the US.

The Great Housing Boom of China

China’s housing prices have been growing nearly twice as fast as national income over the past decade, despite a high vacancy rate and a high rate of return to capital. This paper interprets China’s housing boom as a rational bubble emerging naturally from its economic transition. The bubble arises because high capital returns driven by resource reallocation are not sustainable in the long run. Rational expectations of a strong future demand for alternative stores of value can thus induce currently productive agents to speculate in the housing market. Our model can quantitatively account for China’s paradoxical housing boom. (JEL O16, O18, P24, P25, R21, R31)

Speculating in crisis: the intrametropolitan geography of investing in foreclosed homes in Atlanta

Investors in single-family residential properties have played a crucial role in the United States foreclosure crisis. In this paper, we analyze investor behavior in the diverse urban housing market of Fulton County, Georgia. We examine the composition of buyers of lender-owned properties at two different stages of the foreclosure crisis, and analyze the intrametropolitan geography of investment. Results indicate that large-scale investors are most active in low-value housing submarkets with high poverty and vacancy rates.

Does crime drive housing sales? Evidence from Los Angeles

Crime presents a threat to the residential stability of neighborhoods, and researchers often attempt to measure this indirect cost of crime in terms of the impact on housing values. Some studies have found that violent crime leads to lower home prices, but the associations found between property crime and home values have been more ambiguous. This paper hypothesizes that price-based models likely underestimate the true costs of crime because such models rely on transactions to estimate prices. However, if crime inhibits sales, price indices relying on sales may provide inaccurate measures of changes in housing demand in markets characterized by very low rates of home sales. Similarly, price may be a poor indicator of crime-induced shifts in demand in markets characterized by elastic supply. To address this, we measure the impact of violent, property, and overall crime and changes in crime on the rate of housing transactions across Los Angeles neighborhoods between 1993 and 1997.The results indicate both higher vacancy rates and higher levels of crime in the previous year related to higher rates of housing transactions. The effect of crime inhibiting sales appears primarily due to additional violent crime in neighborhoods with high levels of vacancies and crime.

Turning to the South: Civilian Capacity in the Aftermath of Conflict

SINCE THE END OF THE COLD WAR, THE UNITED NATIONS HAS EXPERIENCED a massive quantitative increase in the number of operations as well as a qualitative shift from military intervention toward state- and peacebuilding support. In their September 2010 submission to the Special Committee on Peacekeeping (the Committee of 34, or C-34), the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations (UNDPKO) and Department of Field Support (DFS) noted that peacekeeping has evolved from a primarily military model of observing ceasefires and separating forces to incorporate a mix of military, police, and civilian capabilities to support the implementation of comprehensive peace agreements and help lay the foundations for sustainable peace and legitimate government. (1) UN has become multidimensional and integrated, aimed at assisting countries recovering from conflict and at laying the foundations for peace- and statebuilding. (2) Currently, ten out of a total of fourteen UN operations are multidimensional in nature and have been mandated by the Security Council to perform a broad range of peacebuilding activities. (3) In addition, there are thirteen UN special political missions performing a range of functions in prevention, peacemaking, and postconflict peacebuilding. (4) With the change in mandates and focus on peacebuilding, the role of civilians has shifted from a peripheral support role to that of military peacekeepers; civilians are now at the core of and peacebuilding operations. Today, civilians have responsibility for many of the mandated tasks in missions. For instance, the UNDPKO and DFS Operational Concept on Protection of Civilians provides for (1) protection through political process; (2) protection from physical violence; and (3) establishment of a protective environment. Whereas uniformed peacekeepers have a key role to play in protection from physical violence, civilian peacekeepers are primarily responsible for protection through political process and the establishment of a protective environment. With this shift in roles, the demand for specialized civilian capacity and expertise has increased significantly. (5) However, these significant and substantive changes in the mandates and tasks of UN and special political missions have not been adequately reflected in how the UN system approaches the recruitment, deployment, and management of its civilian capacity or in how the UN's and special political missions are funded. (6) The effectiveness of the UN has been constrained by its traditional and conservative approach to human resources management. The Secretariat in New York was originally set up for conference management, and member states have been slow to adapt to the changing needs of the UN system. As a result, today's and special political missions suffer from high vacancy rates and slow rates of deploying civilian staff to the field. In this article, we argue that there is a need for a new focus on Southern capacity. Due to the financial crisis, capacity delivery from the North has basically reached its maximum. In contrast, many countries in the Global South, especially some of the emerging powers, have continued to grow at impressive rates. Steady economic growth in many countries of the South means that a new generation of civilian experts is now available from which the UN and other actors may draw. In addition, as many of these countries themselves have undergone dramatic changes in the past few decades (e.g., through conflict and transformation), the civilian expertise they may offer is particularly relevant. Moreover, as the increasingly specialized tasks of UN and peacebuilding missions often require unique expertise specific to a country, the need for staff with contextual understanding has become more pressing. More efficient use and development of national capacities is also vital for ensuring long-term sustainability and local ownership in countries emerging from conflict. …

College highlights “workforce crisis” in emergency medicine

Emergency departments in the UK are facing their biggest challenge in well over a decade as a result of “very serious medical workforce challenges” and unsustainable workloads, the College of Emergency Medicine has said.1 The college’s survey of more than half of the emergency departments in the UK found high vacancy rates for emergency medicine doctors and a reliance on locums, which have been proven to have significant clinical and financial risk implications for the NHS. The college has recommended “urgent work” to create safe and sustainable working patterns for doctors in emergency medicine, which will also create good training environments and attract trainees …

Integration of Knowledge Management Approach to the Planning Stage of Freight Villages

Freight village (FV) is a logistics phenomenon with broad economic, social and environmental consequences. A well organized and knowledge-based planning process is critical to realize sustainable development of FVs, due to its capability to avoid negative phenomena (e.g., unnecessary FV projects, high vacancy rates, unsuitable sites, disturbance to local residents, air and water pollutions) from the beginning. Sustainability-oriented FV planning depends largely on the identification, interpretation, creation and use of involved knowledge. Knowledge management (KM) is a planned, structured approach of systematically and actively managing knowledge for achieving the expected objectives. Thus, this paper aims at integrating KM approach to FVs planning stage for sustainable development. This paper starts with the research background. Then, it proposes a schema for FVs planning steps towards sustainable development. In particular, “sense-making KM model” is used as a guide for FVs planning process following the route: sense making - knowledge creation - decision making.

Theatre and Drama in the New Saskatchewan: Making Space and Place on and beyond the Land

Although Saskatchewan conjures up images of a persistently have-not but determined farming culture and ferociously cold winters contributing to out-migration and cultural bareness, this vision derives more from past mythologies than the New Saskatchewan of the twenty-first century. With only 35% of the population currently in rural areas, a roaring economy and high job vacancy rates, its cities are bursting at the seams with new immigrants from Canada and abroad. Although this prosperity has not led to increased funding for the performing arts, theatre artists are among those moving to the province lured by the opportunity both to explore new, innovative approaches to dramatic work and to draw creative energy from the land, its traditions, and established creative institutions. With a thriving rural as well as urban theatre scene, Saskatchewan theatre artists are contributing to a redefinition of its cultural and social climate and its sense of identity.

Analyzing CRA Lending During the Tsunami in Subprime Lending and Foreclosure in the Philadelphia MSA

Until the onset of the financial meltdown, independent mortgage companies (IMCs) had begun to originate an increasing share of subprime loans, a high proportion of which went into foreclosure. In this study, we compare and contrast the characteristics of neighborhoods that have high proportions of loans made by Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)-regulated institutions with those that have high proportions made by IMCs. We find that IMC-dominated neighborhoods are characterized by high proportions of Blacks/African-Americans, low average family incomes and low nominal average family income increases, an old housing stock with inexpensive homes, a low homeownership rate, high vacancy rates, and a high proportion of high-cost loans. Based on t-tests and regression analyses, we find that areas dominated by IMCs are different from neighborhoods dominated by CRA Lenders and that the proportion of people of color helps explain foreclosure rates.

Is preserving small, low-end rental housing feasible?

This paper uses multiple national datasets to examine the financial, structural, neighborhood, and tenant characteristics of 1–4 unit low-end rental properties, which house 44 percent of all poor renters in US cities. We investigate the feasibility of two strategies to stabilize these properties: (1) outsourcing property management, and (2) transferring bundles of properties to large owners to generate economies of scale, cash reserves, and lower financing costs. We find that approximately five percent of small affordable rental properties are stable, 65 percent are salvageable but at risk, and about 30 percent are not salvageable. For roughly 19 percent of the salvageable properties, a key problem is high vacancy rates, which could be addressed by professional tenant placement services. Bundling has greater potential, but requires purchases at below market prices, amounting to a subsidy.

The Housing Market Renewal Programme: Origins, Outcomes and the Effectiveness of Public Policy Interventions in a Volatile Market

This paper examines the operation of the Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder Programme in England over the period 2002–10. The programme aimed to address high vacancy rates and low house prices in inner-city and declining industrial areas of northern and Midlands cities. The programme achieved some success in generating new housing supply in areas where private developers had previously been reluctant to invest, but had only limited impacts on high vacancy rates. House prices rose sharply in the programme areas, but also in similar areas outside the scope of the programme, driven by wider market-led pressures, including increased demand arising from international in-migration and a boom in speculative investment. With a change in government in 2010, the programme was abruptly wound up and the future of the programme areas is uncertain.

Nurse Manager Engagement: A Concept Analysis

This concept analysis examines the visibility of nurse manager engagement in the healthcare work environment. The term employee engagement was derived from studies of morale or the willingness of a group to accomplish objectives in the 1920s. "Following World War II group morale scores were used as predictors of speed, quality, and militancy by US Army researchers. The goal was to identify star, or high performers. A term was needed to describe emotional attachment of an individual to the organization, fellow associates, and the job" ("Employee engagement origins," 2010, p. 1). The CINAHL, MEDLINE, ABI INFORM, PsycINFO, and Ovid databases and the Internet were searched for the period of 2005-2010 for literature published in English with a focus on peer-reviewed journals from disciplines of health sciences, health administration, business, and psychology. The Walker and Avant method was used for this analysis. The experience of the author as a current and previous nurse manager was also used for this analysis. Nurse manager engagement was assumed to be present based indirectly on empirical referents and consequences, such as low or high vacancy rates for staff nurses. Further research is needed to explore the identity of the nurse serving in the role of manager/leader who is able to demonstrate the skills and talents necessary to visibly demonstrate engagement and facilitate a culture of engaged nurse managers.

Study on Evaluating the Sustainable Development of Real Estate Based on Extention Theory

In real estate industry, there exist some contradictions, including less land supply and higher residential demand, high residential vacancy rate and growing residential demand, resource waste owing to short-term investment and limited resources, high prices and low purchasing power. The paradox matter-element extension theory is fit for the contradictive study, and consistent with the sustainable development of the real estate industry in terms of research subject, logic theory, and variability. On basis of these, this Study establishes extension-theory-based evaluation index system for sustainable development of real estate industry, in which the indices are categorized into five groups: economy and finance, social equality, ecological environment, resources utilization, and government management.

Review on the Development of Underground Shopping Mall in China

On the recent National Congress, a hot topic on the commercial real estate is how to develop underground shopping mall. Underground shopping mall investment had the characteristic of great invest, high level of risk and high profit, It has already become a new popular investment spot. China’s underground shopping mall has gradually transformed from one with a very high degree of government intervention into a more market system. Lack of effective planning and a transparent approval mechanism has led to high vacancy rate in many underground shopping centers. In order to make better use of underground space of shopping, the reform of underground shopping mall investment and operation framework is necessary. The government should change its role in managing investment rather than be Project Company. Government should establish the appropriate monitoring mechanisms to strengthen environmental management and ecological security, including creating a regulated market environment. Key word : Present Status; Development Pattern; Sustainable Management; Underground Shopping Malls; China

‘We are left in the cold’: Nurses’ perceptions and responses to antiretroviral treatment roll-out in the Free State, South Africa

The unprecedented roll-out of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa is a complex process where no previous endeavour exists that can measure, predict, or direct an intervention of this scale. In the Free State province, unique characteristics and problems distinguish its ART programme, although countrywide problems also occur within the province. The Free State province faces high vacancy rates among its health-care workers, the programme has lower patient enrolment rates because of an obsession with quality to the detriment of quantity, and various incidents of ART shortages have also shook the province. The ART roll-out intervention thus far has been largely nurse-driven (however not nurse initiated), and they form what many refer to as the ‘backbone’ of the programme. In order to respond to the challenges faced by these front-line ART providers, continuous transformations inevitably take place to respond to new needs associated with the roll-out programme, but also to strengthen the primary health-care system in general. The objective of this article is to present a typology of contradictory contextual factors in the antiretroviral programme as identified through group interviews that were conducted with PNs at public health-care clinics in the five districts of the Free State province during 2005 and 2006. We intend to show that transformations often have contradictory and problematic outcomes as expressed and perceived by the nurses themselves. This unprecedented endeavour of ART roll-out inevitably has to treasure and support its most valued implementers, i.e. the front-line providers who are not only professionals in the health-care setting, but also social agents in a wider contextual framework.

Analysis of airline seat control with region factor

Due to the lower consumption level to the flights in some regions, the flights' vacancy rate is usually very high and the service level is low. To airlines, the common procedure to handle such problems is to employ different price systems. But this in return results in unsatisfying effects. In this paper we discussed the above issue from another standpoint. Firstly, we introduced a parameter, called region factor, and then constructed a stochastic dynamic model of a single-leg flight related to it. Secondly, we derived some monotone properties for the expected revenue functions. These properties ensured that we could choose appropriate region factor to recover the high vacancy rate caused by the lower consumption levels, but also adopt the similar optimal threshold control strategy as the traditional revenue management did. Furthermore, in addition to improving the service levels, the proper region factor can increase the total revenue sometimes. Lastly, Numerical results were used to illustrate properties of the model.