Housing

Los Angeles Residential Street

Explaining the Country's Worst Rental Market

A recent study reveals that Los Angeles is the least affordable city in the country. The incentives of homeowners all but ensure that the city will never have a mandate to increase its housing supply and restore health to the city's economy.

November 4, 2014 - Josh Stephens

McMansion Sign

Are Single Family Teardowns a Sign of Suburban Gentrification?

Luxury condos are often identified as the culprit in urban gentrification, but could it be that teardowns of single family homes that give way to much larger single family homes is a driver of suburban gentrification?

November 2, 2014 - Chicago Tribune

The Federal Housing Administration's Ongoing, Systematic Obstruction of Density

Scott Beyer writes that despite changes to policies allowing insured mortgages by the Federal Housing Administration's (FHA), the federal government continues to obstruct density by limiting support for condo owners.

October 30, 2014 - Governing

Home For Sale Signs

Generation X Leads the Decline of Homeownership

A snarky post written for The Atlantic identifies a forgotten culprit in the country's dropping homeownership rates: Generation X.

October 29, 2014 - The Atlantic

Housing Affordability Follows Partisan Divide

Recent analysis by Trulia found that the current housing market shows trends that follow along conservative and liberal lines—specifically, that the country's "blue" states are much more expensive than the "red" states.

October 28, 2014 - Trulia Trends Blog

Homeless

Fighting Homelessness by Closing a Commuter Rail Station

The high desert city of Lancaster in northern Los Angeles County has an innovative plan to reduce its homeless population: Close its Metrolink station, the last stop on the Antelope Valley line, that serves 400 commuters daily.

October 28, 2014 - The California Report

Recalling Our Basic Pride of Place

In the fifth of his "place-decoding" series from France, Chuck Wolfe recalls how we carry with us the ability to mine pride from place, even in places that are, perhaps, least expected to shine.

October 25, 2014 - The Huffington Post

Massive Detroit Foreclosures Push Out Black Homeowners

A Detroit reborn sounds great, but what if the residents of “blighted” areas don’t want to leave? Many feel they have no choice in a process that has been compared to racial relocation. Meanwhile, activists scramble to give residents options.

October 24, 2014 - The Atlantic

Green Belt

Green Belts Cure Sprawl, Cause Problems

Touted as a solution to mindless suburban expansion, the vast green belts around U.K. cities create new challenges. Among them: less affordable housing, longer commutes, and dubious environmental benefits. What happens if these spaces get developed?

October 22, 2014 - The Guardian

Following Tragedy—A Call to Fully Fund the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund

Following the murder of a 12-year-old homeless child in Louisville, Beverly Duncan writes an editorial calling for Louisville Metro Council members to fully fund the Louisville Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

October 21, 2014 - The Courier-Journal

Plans to Close D.C. Homeless Shelter Relies on the Generosity of Landlords

Can a $52 million plan to close the D.C. General emergency shelter rely on the generosity of landlords in providing houses for the homeless?

October 21, 2014 - The Washington Post

Transform's New GreenTrip Parking Database

A new database from the Oakland-based Transform group maps and tracks unused parking spaces in multifamily housing developments.

October 18, 2014 - Streetsblog LA

Young Crowd

Why Millennials Opt to Rent

Sandie Angulo Chen of Trulia discusses the reasons why Millennials prefer to rent homes or apartments instead of buying properties.

October 17, 2014 - Trulia

Subprime Lending and the Great Recession Still Impacting Black Americans

Nathalie Baptiste examines the case of Prince George’s County in Maryland near Washington D.C. as a study in how the housing and real estate markets has unjustly attacked the wealth of Black Americans.

October 14, 2014 - The American Prospect

Critiquing the Federal Housing Finance Agency's Policy on Loan Put-Backs

Laurie Goodman and Jun Zhu explain the complicated but critical controversy over the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) recent policy for sunsets on loan put-backs. At stake: the ongoing constraints on lending in the United States.

October 14, 2014 - Housing Wire

Underground

Beijing's One Million Underground Urban Dwellers

The October issue of Land Lines reveals the remarkable story of how an estimated one million people came to live in subterranean apartments in Beijing.

October 13, 2014 - Land Lines

Star Apartments Offer Starchitect Treatment for L.A.'s Skid Row Homeless

The new 100-unit, $40-million Star Apartments opened in Skid Row earlier this week is part of Los Angeles County’s Housing for Health initiative to house 10,000 of the most vulnerable homeless people.

October 11, 2014 - Los Angeles Times

The Washington D.C. Housing Market Completely Flipped in One Decade

Trends in Washington D.C. housing affordability is similar to other cities around the country, but is also unique in how swiftly the housing market has shifted.

October 7, 2014 - The Washington Post - Wonkblog

New York City Moving Forward with Inclusionary Zoning Study

The New York City Housing Development Corporation hired BAE Urban Economics, also known as Bay Area Economics, "to crunch the numbers on its forthcoming mandatory inclusionary housing program," according to an article by Joe Anuta.

October 7, 2014 - Crain's New York Business

Luxury Condos Saturating New York City's Housing Market

The housing market in NYC has seen a 98.5 percent increase in luxury condo construction since last year. Market experts are concerned there is not enough demand to meet supply, causing developers to build upper to middle-income housing instead.

October 4, 2014 - New York Times

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

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Planning for Universal Design

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