Happy Friday. This is The Shake 🤝: the weekly newsletter that keeps growing 📈 like the US debt ceiling.

We got a quick one this week:

• FAR Out 🌆 

• Weekly Giveaway 🎰 

MARKET RADAR

FAR Out 🌇 

​​Today, the world has over 44,000 buildings with at least 25 floors. As our society continues to grow, so do our buildings - shouldn’t zoning be the same?

There are different views on how tall buildings affect cities across the globe; environmental impacts or revitalized skyline, historic preservation or modern design, unaffordable due to low supply, or affordable due to increased supply.

In order to measure density, cities adopted a planning tool called the Floor Area Ratio (FAR), which tells you how much building space you can have per square foot of land on the lot.

Basically, it's the number that determines if you get to build a tall, skinny building or a short, fat one. And let me tell you, people get really worked up about it.

There are the NIMBYs (Not In My Backyard) who don't want anything built near them, and the YIMBYs (Yes In My Backyard) who want to build as much as possible.

But the real problem with FAR is that it's based on this outdated idea that cities should all look like suburbs. And who wants that?

👆️ In 1898, Ebenezer Howard offered his vision of the utopian Garden City. His ideas would later influence the creation of New York City’s 1961 Zoning Resolution.

FAR regulations began in Chicago in 1957 and spread from there. The “idea” of FAR dates back more than half a century before 1957 and was inspired by British planners like Ebenezer Howard above.

This was a long time ago, so the conviction for the idea spawned from:

• The need for cities to look/feel suburban

• Private developers could not be trusted to build the right housing in the right locations

The overall goal now is to cap and micromanage developers to ensure the “integrity of the city”.

These caps are no joke: it is illegal on more than 50% of New York City soil for a landowner to build anything except a one or two-family home.

FYI most residential neighborhoods in the US have FARs of one or less - the standard for a SFH with two stories. Even hyper-dense Manhattan has a residential FAR of only four.

The results of limiting building density through cap produce:

1. Urban sprawl

2. Traffic congestion

3. Higher carbon footprints

4. More expensive housing

So let's just say that FAR is like the 8-track tape of city planning - it's time to move on.

WEEKLY GIVEAWAY 🎰

Threshold is disrupting property management. They're 100% owner-aligned and you only pay based on net distributions: no leasing commissions, kickbacks, or hidden fees. Plus they've built a sweet owner platform that's like Robinhood for your rentals.

Shake readers get Threshold Management free for two months 🤝 

This week’s giveaway item is an OrbitKey 

How do you win?

We are going to post a closed transaction with some high-level details and whoever can guess the right sale price, wins.

If nobody gets it right, the closest guess wins. If two people get it right (screw us right?!) we will hook you both up!

Let’s kick it off 👇️ 

This west coast building sold just hours before California’s mansion tax went into place.

FIN 🤝 If you enjoyed this week's edition, don’t be selfish — share with a friend!

^{DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.and how regu06}