Housing
Supreme Court Upholds 'Disparate Impact' in Key Fair Housing Decision
A highly anticipated Supreme Court ruling on the concept of "disparate impact" at the heart of the Fair Housing Act.
To Auction or Not? Philadelphia Proceeds with Tax Lien Auction Despite Criticism
In an ongoing effort to turn around its stock of vacant, tax delinquent properties, the city of Philadelphia will send some 1,400 liens to auction.
Harvard Report: U.S. Housing Recovery Losing Momentum
The State of the Nation's Housing, a closely watched report from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, was released to the public today.
Philadelphia's Rowhouse Remedy for Gentrification
Blessed with an innate resilience, Philadelphia's brick rowhouses risk disrepair and redevelopment. Local nonprofits are looking for ways to keep this resource equitable.
Seattle NIMBYs Protest Dense Development, Cite Eastern Bloc
A zoning bill has stirred up the fear that dense development projects will transform Seattle into a "Soviet cityscape." Residents accuse developers of using loopholes to squeeze in pricey, out-of-character townhomes.
Affordable Housing Follows Good Transit
More raw housing stock is only the first step. Without comprehensive transit, the value of density can't extend beyond the city center.
Urban Institute Report: Peak Homeownership Reached Nine Years Ago
Homeownership peaked at 67.3% in 2006. The Urban Institute forecasts its decline to the year 2030. Emily Badger of The Washington Post Wonkblog writes on the report released this month that evaluates homeownership rates among different demographics.
California State Supreme Court Upholds Inclusionary Zoning Laws
The California Building Industry Association (BIA) had taken its case to the State Supreme Court, but in the end the court decided that municipalities could require developers to set aide a portion of units for affordable housing.
HUD's 'Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing' Provokes Controversy in Congress
A rule proposed by the Obama Administration has been criticized for attempting to build an "unrealistic utopia." The Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing would require cities to fund affordable housing in a broader spectrum of neighborhoods.
San Francisco's Intractable Housing Dilemma
Blogger Shane Phillips writes that San Francisco has two possible responses to its housing crisis: increase supply to accommodate newcomers, or hunker down and promote only subsidized housing. Both, he says, are lousy. Other coastal cities, beware.
How Landlords Segregate Neighborhoods
Exploring the persistence of racial segregation as a result of U.S. housing policies—policies intended to break patterns of segregation, not reproduce them.
Seattle Searching for Answers on Affordable Housing
The city of Seattle has a stated goal of creating 30,000 new market rate housing units and 20,000 new or newly rent-restricted units in the city in the next 10 years. How to do so is the question currently before local officials.
U.S. Opposition to New Development
New data from the 2015 Saint Index shows what projects provoke the most opposition in the United States when proposed "In your community."
The New Housing Crisis: Declining Homeownership, Increasing Rental Costs
Research from the Urban Institute identifies market and demographic trends that could mean a future housing market that will stand in stark contrast to the "subprime mania of the early 2000s."
Op-Ed Decries Santa Monica's Airbnb Ban
By exiling short-term renters, the coastal city of Santa Monica shifts its housing burden onto neighboring areas. That burden, according to this op-ed, contradicts the city's sustainability commitment and further limits scarce residential options.
More McMansions: Upscaling Suburbia
According to this article, the market forces behind large home construction are alive and well. In a process of suburban gentrification, developers purchase older, smaller homes and build "McMansions" in their place.
Why New York Barely Taxes Its Billionaires
If taxed at an average rate, the buyer of One57's $100.5 million penthouse should have paid $1.3 million in property taxes. Instead, the property was assessed at $17,000. Here's why.
Seattle 2035 Comprehensive Plan Wrestles With Urban Growth
As increasing density and increasing housing costs raise temperatures all over Seattle, residents and planners are engaging in a comprehensive plan that will determine how the city grows over the next 20 years.
Land Bank Achieves Initial Success in Erie County, New York
The former steel town of Lackawanna, in Erie County, New York, is the latest beneficiary of the growing reach of land banks.
San Francisco's Proposed Housing Moratorium Is a Bad Idea
After San Francisco Supervisors reject housing moratorium, proponents vow ballot initiative. But a moratorium is the wrong solution to the problem and would likely lead to continued price increases, condo conversions, and Ellis Act evictions.
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.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association
