As a homeowner in a similar neighborhood as the one described in the article, I wish passionately LESS people would turn their houses into apartment buildings. I hate to use the 'there goes the neighborhood' argument, but renters are ruining my neighborhood. They're loud and disrespectful of others property. The fierce competition in the renting market means steadily declining property maintenance (basically you can charge a small rent uptick for a very nicely maintained property and spend a bunch on maintenance, or spend the bare minimum on maintenance and only lose 5-10% of rental income-which is way more profitable than maintaining the property nicely). I'm currently warily watching some renovations going on at the property next to me-the minute it looks like they're splitting it up into apartments I'm going to have to put my property on the market. I can't live 20ft away from a carousel of characters.