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Show DAILY Frkiay, August J 8, 2006 Housing Continued from D6 sociatkm of Realtors. More often, experts say, young adults are stretching ,' themselves to buy property with little or no down payment loans. and using interest-onlThose financing options became increasingly popular kig the recent housing boom, but also carry risks such as a heavier debt load and an eventual day of reckoning. Tougher to track are the cheaper housing deals made among friends or family or set up'online, where bartering on such sites as Craigslist and TradeAway is in vogue. After making an online postChristopher ing, Stone considering an offer house in of a Andover, Mass.; in exchange for providirg 15 hours of child-car- e a week for the family that owns the house. He's then looking to rent the second room to someone who could provide some care for his own young children. In another case, lan Mclntyre says he and friends have flitted around the world since college, staying in touch by cell phone, My Space to set up mutually and convenient housing situations. Now in Boulder, Colo., he has landed back with a plat onic girlfriend he's lived with on and off for the past five years. "We agree that we probably will live together until one of us gets hitched. The convenience is huge, the companionship is huge and the financial rewards dont suck either," ' says Mclntyre, who's 25. or that Companionship is key need for community for many. It's one reason Karen Falcon, an apartment building owner in New York, decided to try the "dorms for adults" approach by renting rooms instead of entire apartments. Charging $725 to $825 per room in a four- - or apartment cheap by New Falcon goes York standards with her gut when placing tenants with other strangers. "Some people are kind of short or' snappy. I dont rent to those people," she says. "You can hear in a person's voice if Katrina they're respectful, considerate, kind of sweet." In three years, she says she's only had. a problem with one tenant. Still, these creative housing arrangements arent always perfect, as the Quint siblings in Florida have found. After they bought the house in June, they quibbled over who would get the master bedroom and bath. Jennifer eventually won, but only after she agreed to take the smaller of the two common living areas as her own. shop, survived the storm well despite the fact that just two blocks away, other businesses were pummeled. But while she had little physical damage, her business needed to be rebuilt she had lost customers who moved away, and, as a resale They also sometimes fight , . over noise from the TV. "And my brother doesn't seem to understand when the trash goes out," she says, laughing. But she's not sorry they bought the house together. "It's been quite an experi' ence," Quint says. "We get not we're when better aloqg but so far, ' living together we've done really well." On the Net. JOHN Prairie Onion Cohousing: http:www. pTairieonioncohousing.org "We've gone from one ot the world s great cosmopolitan cities to a Continued from D6 DS HERALD f Press RAOUXAssociated in Apopka, Flo. The Quint siblings bought the house together this summer. They plan to rent a third room to a friend to help with expenses and then sell in about five years to buy their own places. Jason Quint and his sister Jennifer prepare dinner : at their home : 4f 5t- W - pioneer town." John Deveny Deveney Communication merchant, was short of inventory because there were fewer people around to sell her used J landlords help from others and food suppliers, for example children's goods. has helped. "Everyone has "We didnt have enough sum- - banded together," he said. mer clothing," just as people Still, business is quite differwho were returning home were ent from the way it was a year in need of children's wear, ago. To get employees to staff the stores; Vodanovich and his Zbilich said. Zbilich said she was helped family are paying much higher clothof donations by wages. And because food degreatly liveries don't always come on ing from other Children's Orchard stores and from the schedule, the stores must carry higher inventory levels than company's corporate offices. But she also had to start lookthey did a year ago. Even businesses that have ing for customers and merdone well have had some strugchandise in other areas, such as Baton Rouge. So she began gles. Bowen said the losses she to advertise in directories and suffered from her business magazines, avenues she hadn't were covered by business interused before, but was rewarded ruption insurance, but she had all her fall inventory in, and she found people were willing drive long distances to her "you just don't want to lose a whole season's worth of sales." store. So Bowen, who had gone "I'm not sure we would have to Memphis, Term., rented been able to survive" without retail space there. Employees such changes, Zbilich said. "I and friends packed up her would say we're maybe 80 percent back to where we were merchandise and took it to Memphis, and Bowen sold her clothes there from early OcRecovering has been complicated by the fact that insurance tober through late November. reimbursements have taken so She reopened in New Orleans on November 30, but noted long to arrive. that one reason why her store, Vodanovich said His business finally received insurance MIMI, has done well is because competitors including Saks money only about a month ago. Three of his family's Wing Fifth Avenue have been unable to reopen. Zone stores were destroyed or were in neighborhoods that Despite these owners' sucwere wiped out; all but one of cess, there still thousands of the others had varying degrees business owners who haven't been able to return, and who of damage. "It's definitely been a strugmay never go back. Those who are there are obviously in a gle, trying to get the stores back open," said Vodanovich, very different New Orleans. "We've gone from one of who said the wait for the insurance has been the hardest part. the world's great cosmopolitan cities to a pioneer town," said What helped the business John Deveney, who returned was the success of one of the to New Orleans soon after the stores; it pulled in so much revenue that "we were able to take storm so his public relations firm, Deveney Communication, money out of that" to pay for could set up a media center for repairs while they waited for the city s tourism and hospital- the insurance. Like Zbilich, Vodanovich said ity industry. it T r , t ' ftMilONE WAY ' - t ." 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