Weekly News (May 10, 2017)

1. Edgewater, NJ also would ban short term rent

Town is in the process of proposing ordinance to ban short term rent including Airbnb
Fine would be $1250
Currently Airbnb has about 20 listings in Edgewater, NJ ($40~$350/night)
In Bergen County, Paramus, Palisades Park, Closter, East Rutherford, Fairview, etc. are banning short term rent

2. Kushner companies actively seeking Chinese investors for luxury apartments

$ 500,000 investment in Jersey City to get legal residency in US by EB-5 program
$ 976 Million ‘One Journal Square’ project is being built by KABR Group, based in Ridgefield Park: Managed by Kushner family real estate company
The project consists of 2 towers(79 and 56 stories) will have 1725 units
EB-5 program was streamlined in 2007 à increase of use: INS approved 7632 visas in 2016 (Double than 3677 in 2012)
While lending money from the bank costs 6% interests, using people from EB-5 costs 1%

3. Energy market emerged in Brooklyn, NY, developed by ‘L03’ company

‘Micro-Grid’ for electricity is on experiment among 50 houses in Brooklyn → P2P market
A House with Solar panel → Generate electricity and save extra electricity into storage(Block Chain)→ Sell to neighbor house through App (A house received 159 KW at $0.07 → Paid $11/month)
Remaining issue is regulation from authority
In Germany, 8000 houses are involved with Energy market / Australia is in experiment

4. New development: Mixed use building in ‘West side’ in Manhattan, NY

At current parking space (11^th Ave, between 39-40^th St)
According to NYCEDC, Low-income apartment (234 units): 200,000 SF office space, 12,000 SF retail space Mixed-use complex will be completed in 2022

5. New farm Mart opened in Easter Rutherford, NJ

6. Florida is #1 place for retirement

According to ‘WalletHub’, Florida stakes #1 place for retirement from 3 criteria: Affordability, Healthcare (24^th), Quality of life(11^th): Affordability is super
NY → Quality of life(1^st), Affordability is poor
Hawaii, Washington DC, Connecticut, Alaska → worst area to retire

7. LG All Automatic, Drum Washer → Ranking #1 in US

According to Consumer Report (from 67,000 consumer poll)
For Top-loader category, Brand reliability: 1. LG, 2. Maytag, 3.GE, 4. Whirlpool, 5. Samsung
For Front-loader (Drum washer) category: 1. LG, 2. Kenmore, 3. Maytag, 4. Electrolux, 5. Samsung, 6. Whirlpool

8. ‘Glass-Steagall’ Law might be revived by Trump

For last 3 months, Trump was saying Dodd-Frank law will be gone / limited
Now Trump cabinet indicated revival of Glass-Steagall law → Big banks will be divided to general commerce bank and investment bank
This law was nullified by president Clinton in 1999
American Bankers Association opposed (It will take long time : Currently government is working on Tax reform)