Later phases of the project will likely include commercial offices, retail buildings and both rental and owner-occupied housing, the developer and public officials said.
Because the asset price method can lead to inappropriate results for goods that are purchased largely for investment reasons, the CPI implemented the rental equivalence approach to measuring price change for owner-occupied housing.
While the big firms are likely lining their own pockets by doing so, Shiller says they are also doing a service by converting a chunk of the existing housing stock from (potentially underwater) owner-occupied to rental units.