On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:21:21 -0600, "tom" wrote:


wrote in message
.. .
On Thu, 18 Dec 2008 08:53:59 -0500, Norminn
wrote:

One thing that associations CAN do is require the units to be owner
occupied.

What happens if the market is low, like now, and someone wants to
move? While the people staying don't want the apartment to be rented,
when they are in that situation, ready to move, retire, have to go to
assisted living, they may not like it when the rule impacts them.

I will agree that rental units are often not well taken care of, but
otoh if the price is low and that's the only reason the buyer can
afford to buy, that can be bad too.

Of the 110 houses in my 30 year old HOA, I think 15 or 20 are rentals
now and about 10 or 15 of them are owned by those who once lived here,
and most are in as good a condition as those resident owned. Of
course things vary widely.

I've got no problem with that. One of the main reasons we moved last summer
was than the 2BR house next to our old place sold and the new owner finished
the upstairs and put 2BR's in the basement and was suddenly renting out a
5BR house. Talk about putting 10 pounds of **** in a 5 pound bag.

That was probably illegal. Do you need certificates of occupancy where
you live? Did he have a C of O for two families?

Long before Barack Obama got to Hyde Park/Kenwood in Chicago, it was a
beuatiful neighborhood that was on the brink of being ruined by a
combination of speculators and people who could no longer afford to
live in their entire homes subdividing homes illegally to make room
for one or two more families. The n'hood got organized.

One of the tools they used to stop this was getting members of the
HPKCC, Hyde Park-Kenwood Community Conference to keep on the look-out
for plumbing trucks. Of course some people need plumbing repairs,
but if the truck was there for more than an hour, it was likely a
conversion, and that always meant an illegal conversion. Then
someone would call the building inspector, and I think in the 50's and
early 60's that have to hound him because he was often in on it.

Another tool was the House Tour. There are loads of these around th
ecountry now, but I think they originated in Hyde Park and Kenwood.
It's not just about pride and bragging. The purpose was to show how
beautiful the houses are inside so that people with money will buy one
in the area. Even where the houses aren't as fancy as the ones in
Kenwood, they are often much better than one's unseeing guess.

Anyhow, preventing illegal conversions and the other projects of the
HPKCC is why the n'hood looks as nice now as it did 50 and 80 years
ago. I'm not sure when the houses were built. www.hydepark.org

I used to live in Hyde Park, the part south of 51st St. In the dorm,
the fraternity, and two years sharing an apartment with friends. Just
a 2-bedroom with living room, dining room, large pantry, and sunporch.
Very common in Chicago.