The 234 Apartment

As you do more banking by smartphone, that bank branch you used to visit may soon turn into a restaurant, a day care center or even a condo tower. After a branch building boom a decade or so ago, banks are closing offices by the thousands as more of their customers bank online . They're leaving behind space ready to be transformed into something else, whether an urban storefront or a free- standing brick building with a drive-thru in the suburbs. "If the real estate is strong, any number of things can happen to the property," says Kim McGuire, senior vice president in the Chicago office of CBRE. It's a problem or an opportunity, depending on your perspective, that will be here for a while. Banks operate about 89,300 branches in the United States today , down 8 percent over the past decade, according to Chicago- based real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle . JLL expects an additional 20 percent drop over the next decade. In the Chicago area, the number of branches d...

When Matt Metzger and Carly Wingert showed up to view apartments early Friday afternoon at a complex on the south end of town, the property management office was closed. Another tenant pointed them to the mailbox with applications they could take and fill out. But it was empty. So they were off to make more calls. They'd already looked at a couple of places, including one that still was under renovation. "The struggle is real," Wingert said, still cheerful nonetheless. "It's not easy at all," Metzger said. After looking at just a handful of units, they were already talking about how to adjust their budget and possibly work overtime to afford a suitable home.  Wingert and Metzger plan to finish their degrees at the University of Montana — he's studying wildlife biology and she's interested in literature and the environment. They're among a slew of students looking for housing around the same time. Despite all the construction that's been ...