A two and a half year low in sales of existing homes and buyers' holding out for better deals are just a few signs of the accelerating tumble in housing markets.
"Existing-home sales dropped 4.1 percent in July from June, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.33 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported. That is the lowest level since January 2004."
"Economists said the data showed that the housing market is following the traditional path of a slowdown: a drop in sales that is followed by a decline or a plateau in prices... The median nationwide price of a home sold last month was $230,000, up just 0.9 percent from the same month last year."
"Most economists, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, expect the slowdown to be orderly. But with home builders reporting a sharp pullback in interest in new homes, existing home sales in many local markets now look set to weaken a while longer... Only in the South are prices still rising: the median home there sold for 3.2 percent more last month than a year ago."
Thanks to Jon Cecil, AICP
FULL STORY: Housing market cooling rapidly
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
San Francisco's School District Spent $105M To Build Affordable Housing for Teachers — And That's Just the Beginning
SFUSD joins a growing list of school districts using their land holdings to address housing affordability challenges faced by their own employees.
Can We Please Give Communities the Design They Deserve?
Often an afterthought, graphic design impacts everything from how we navigate a city to how we feel about it. One designer argues: the people deserve better.
Engineers Gave America's Roads an Almost Failing Grade — Why Aren't We Fixing Them?
With over a trillion dollars spent on roads that are still falling apart, advocates propose a new “fix it first” framework.
The European Cities That Love E-Scooters — And Those That Don’t
Where they're working, where they're banned, and where they're just as annoying the tourists that use them.
Map: Where Senate Republicans Want to Sell Your Public Lands
For public land advocates, the Senate Republicans’ proposal to sell millions of acres of public land in the West is “the biggest fight of their careers.”
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
Borough of Carlisle
Smith Gee Studio
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
City of Astoria
Transportation Research & Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University
City of Camden Redevelopment Agency
Municipality of Princeton (NJ)