Housing

Downtown Kansas City Missouri

Kansas City Star Editorial Board Laments 'Denverization'

The Kansas City Star Editorial Board has concerns about gentrification and affordable housing.

November 28, 2018 - The Kansas City Star

Nashville Tennessee

Nashville Scored an Amazon Prize, But the Long-Term Outcomes for the City Are Less Clear

Critics say the new operations facility will make some of the city’s problems even worse.

November 26, 2018 - Curbed

Minneapolis Stone Arch Bridge

Minneapolis 2040 Expected to Pass After Adjustments

One of the most ambitious comprehensive plans of a major city in the United States is headed to approval, after amendments and compromises garnered the necessary political support among city councilmembers.

November 25, 2018 - Star Tribune

Bank Owned

Detroit Program Keeps Homeowners Facing Foreclosure Housed

The buyback plan diverts properties from Wayne County's tax foreclosure auction, keeping them in government hands until residents can repay the purchase price.

November 24, 2018 - Detroit Free Press

Downtown Denver

Millennials Choose Cities for First Homes

New research suggests that millennials are remaining in urban areas as they transition from renting to homeownership.

November 24, 2018 - CityLab

Agricultural Land

British Columbia Wants to Curb Mega-Mansion Construction in the Agricultural Land Reserve

Farmers around Vancouver's Agricultural Land Reserve have been building "mega-mansions" on their farmland. The province wants to limit the scale of such homes, but farmers are pushing back.

November 22, 2018 - The Star

Senior Mobility

More Seniors Living in Suburban and Rural Areas; Aging-in-Place Solutions Needed

Less dense communities provide specific challenges in providing services to residents in need of extra care. More seniors living in suburban and rural communities will require new and scalable solutions.

November 21, 2018 - Route Fifty

4 abandoned homes in St. Louis's Greater Ville neighborhood

St. Louis Lawsuits Focus on Delinquent Properties

Special suits give property owners an opportunity to fix up rundown properties before the city sells them.

November 21, 2018 - St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Apartment renter

Fair Housing Bill Targets Voucher Discrimination

A bipartisan bill tackles landlords' unwillingness to rent to housing voucher holders.

November 21, 2018 - Housing Wire

A Black woman stands in front of a home holding an umbrella and smiling.

White People Don't Recognize Black Middle Class Neighborhoods

According to a series of studies, white people have a blindness for seeing the black middle class in neighborhoods—even if they don't display other forms of racial animus.

November 20, 2018 - Slate

Miami

Upzoning, Inclusionary Zoning Designed to Increase Affordable Housing Supply in Miami

The city of Miami will for the first time require that affordable housing be included in private residential development projects. The mandatory inclusionary zoning was made more palatable to developers by upzoning the affected area.

November 20, 2018 - Miami Herald

Single-Family Housing Construction

High Housing Prices Concern the Nation's Homebuilders

High prices and rising mortgage rates are called a "toxic cocktail" for the homebuilding industry.

November 20, 2018 - CNBC

Derek Mindler

An Argument for a Graduated Real Estate Transfer Tax in Chicago

As it exists today, Chicago's real estate transfer tax is a flat tax that charges the same percentage for modest homes and mansions.

November 19, 2018 - Chicago Sun-Times

Atlanta Skyline

Atlanta Housing Authority Changing Course as Affordable Housing Problems Grow

Housing costs are rising in Atlanta, while available affordable housing has decreased. The Atlanta Housing Authority needs to ramp up construction after a lull in development.

November 19, 2018 - Atlanta

Vancouver Skyline

Vancouver Launching its First Citywide Plan Since 1928

The Vancouver City Council decided to launch a new housing vision for the British Columbia city. Planners will have their work cut out for them balancing all the stakeholders in the expensive city.

November 18, 2018 - The Star

San Francisco

How San Francisco Ran Out of Affordable Housing Funds, and What to Do About It

Analysis and policy recommendations from Bay Area-based think tank SPUR focuses on how poorly designed inclusionary zoning the exact opposite of the desired effect.

November 18, 2018 - SPUR

Downtown Kansas City Missouri

Kansas City Trying New Approaches to Affordable Housing

After years of neglecting its affordable housing policy, Kansas City is developing a new five-year vision on policy matters like a public-private trust fund and inclusionary zoning.

November 17, 2018 - Next City

Cedar Rapids Flooding

Flood Risk and Community Resiliency

An analysis of how flooding, the most frequent and costliest natural disaster in the U.S., will cause stress to the housing market in coming decades.

November 16, 2018 - Penn IUR Urban Link

Boston Ferry

Airbnb Suing Boston Over New Regulations

The front lines of the short-term rental wars shift to the city of Boston.

November 15, 2018 - The Boston Globe

Shenzhen Crumbling Buildings

Speculation Leaves 50 Million Homes Empty in China

Experts say China has the highest vacancy rate on residential units of any country in the world. The roots of the problem lay in housing speculation, according to China's leaders.

November 14, 2018 - Bloomberg

FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?

After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.

Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold

The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

100 Most Influential Urbanists

The who's who of urbanism, according to Planetizen readers.

Urban Planning Creators You Should Know

A short list of voices on social, video, and podcasting platforms.