Buying a home in California is increasingly a matter of generational wealth.
An analysis by KPCC of more than 600,000 FHA loans found that Californians increasingly rely on family support to buy their first homes. That trend has prompted concern among experts that today's housing market is fueling inequities produced by past racial exclusion.
"Back in 2011, about one in four FHA loans in California included down payment money from relatives. Today, it's one in three," report David Wagner and Aaron Mendelson. In many parts of the state—from East San Jose to South Central LA—fully half of FHA borrowers received funds from their families.
The bigger the role of family wealth in homeownership, the worse the racial wealth gap is likely to become, researchers told KPCC: White families can often transfer wealth to their children precisely because they were favored by government policies around homeownership, while families of color who were excluded from owning a home now have less of a chance to help their children afford one.
FULL STORY: Where do people get money to buy California homes these days? Often, from mom and dad
Study: Half as Many Metro Areas Affordable to Low-Income Homebuyers in 2021 as in 2020
Over 13 million potential first-time homebuyers were priced out this year, putting homeownership out of reach for low-income households in most of the largest U.S. cities.
Report Links Zoning and Land Use to Structural Racism
The historically comprehensive study outlines the policies that have shaped homeownership, generational wealth, and economic development in the Puget Sound region.
Black Wealth Builders Fund Supports Black Homeownership
A Bay Area loan fund provides Black homebuyers with zero-interest loans to meet their down payments. But is it ‘reparations?’
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
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