Housing

In Sydney, "the most unaffordable housing market in the English- speaking world", sky-high housing prices are driving residents priced out of the suburbs into apartments downtown, reports Nichola Saminather.

January 19, 2013 - Bloomberg

Renting out luxury homes has become an attractive choice in today's housing market. High-end renters get many of the benefits of owning a home, with greater built-in flexibility, and without the financial risk.

January 19, 2013 - The Wall Street Journal

Yosh Asato compares the current dot-com and housing boom around South of Market (SoMA), the heart of San Francisco's tech industry, to previous booms that resulted in inevitable crashes. Is there an optimistic future for the city this time around?

January 17, 2013 - Metropolis Magazine

What do three-pack-a-day smoking habits, triple-decker cheese burgers and sprawl have in common? They all offer immediate gratification and deferred consequences. But now the bill's coming due. Ben Brown lays out some ways to face the music.

January 17, 2013 - PlaceShakers

As waves of gentrification sweep through the poor and middle class neighborhoods of New York City's outer boroughs, Stephen Smith argues that conservative, and outdated, zoning codes are to blame for the unequal balance between supply and demand.

January 16, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

Lafayette Park is a thriving and diverse neighborhood of high rises and townhouses designed by Mies van der Rohe. This unique modern architecture success story in Detroit is showcased in a new book "Thanks for the View, Mr. Mies."

January 16, 2013 - Fast Company Co.Design

The "great global project" of this century, says Patrick Doherty, is how to "accommodate 3 billion additional middle-class aspirants in two short decades." In a bold essay, he outlines how the U.S. must lead the global transition to sustainability.

January 15, 2013 - Foreign Policy

Kaid Benfield examines a model 'pocket neighborhood' - Little Rock's Pettaway - which simultaneously improves a declining neighborhood, provides affordable infill housing and applies advanced measures for stormwater control.

January 15, 2013 - NRDC Switchboard

Even in the Washington D.C. region, which survived the Great Recession with one of the strongest economies in the country, foreclosed and vacant homes are a stubborn presence in many neighborhoods, including affluent ones.

January 15, 2013 - The Washington Post

"[A]ffordable housing remains one of America’s most vexing problems," states an editorial published last weekend in The Times. To help address this problem, the editors challenge the new Congress to finally finance the National Housing Trust Fund.

January 15, 2013 - The New York Times

At a forum held last week, candidates to become L.A.'s next mayor outlined their approaches to tackling the city's most daunting housing challenges - from homelessness to the need for more affordable housing.

January 14, 2013 - Los Angeles Times

Hampton Court, a luxury apartment bldg in Manhattan, had two challenges to overcome in attracting tenants - being located in East Harlem and its distance from the Lexington Ave. subway line. An 'amenity' - a shuttle to the subway - proved the answer.

January 9, 2013 - The New York Times - Real Estate

A new report released by Smart Growth America evaluates the federal government's influence on America's real estate sector. With $450 billion in subsidies per year, it's clear "the communities we’ve constructed weren’t built on market demand alone."

January 8, 2013 - The Atlantic Cities

After the city rezoned Williamsburg, affordable housing was supposed to be built on the grounds of a NYCHA project there. Seven years later, ground has not been broken.

January 8, 2013 - The Brooklyn Bureau

Declining rental vacancy rates and increased interest in urban living are putting upwards pressure on housing prices throughout the country. But 2012 wasn't all bad news for attempts to retain and expand affordable housing in American cities.

January 7, 2013 - Rooflines

In Hong Kong, new government policies to curb real estate speculation in housing markets have led investors to turn elsewhere for quick, lucrative profits - the market for parking spaces.

January 5, 2013 - Los Angeles Times - Business

New findings published by Trulia, the real estate website, show the connection between home values and road names. "Boulevard" carries the most cache, and "street" the least, reports Lew Sichelman.

January 3, 2013 - Chicago Tribune

With rental vacancy rates declining across America, the expansion of rent control policies may seem like a logical solution for protecting vulnerable renters from fast rising prices. But Peter Tatian argues there's little evidence that it works.

January 3, 2013 - Metro Trends

In a photo essay on small homes and the people who love them, Sightline Fellow Alyse Nelson explains the attraction of compact living and the ways in which small homeowners are living it up by scaling down.

January 3, 2013 - Sightline Daily

Richard Blackwell examines the foundations of Canada's housing "affordability crisis," in which prices have doubled over the last decade due to low rates and easy mortgage terms.

January 2, 2013 - The Globe and Mail