As reported in WSJ Mansion edition this weekend: By NANCY KEATES CONNECT
“Designer Kendall Wilkinson recently completed an ambitious renovation on a 3,000-square-foot penthouse in San Francisco’s Nob Hill. She gutted the apartment, adding a den and putting in leather walls, marble floors, new molding, a high-end kitchen with features by designer Christopher Peacock and Waterworks fixtures. She also designed a closet with custom built-ins, turned a bedroom into a library and made three bedrooms into two bathrooms. “
http://live.wsj.com/public/page/embed-63695EBB_3D0D_466B_9ECD_DB42F214EDBA.html
“In competitive real-estate markets, some luxury renters are making a surprising decision: putting tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars into upgrades on their temporary lodgings. They are investing in redos at a time when rental vacancies nationwide are at their lowest since 2001—currently at 4.3%, according to real-estate research firm Reis. Meanwhile, rents have been rising rapidly, up 3.8% over the past year. The result: More renters are deciding to stay put and put their money into improving their current homes.”
“People don’t want to live in something that’s not up to their standards. They’re willing to make big changes even if they’ll only be there a couple of years,” says Noble Black, a broker with Corcoran in New York, where the vacancy rate was just 1.9% in the first quarter of 2013, down from 2.1% a year earlier… “
