Scholars at the American Enterprise Institute think that the government should get out of housing finance because it has competing, irreconcilable goals when it comes to financing homes.
Daniel Indiviglio summarizes the AEI report for The Atlantic:
"It urges that government exit housing finance, except for a small, on-balance-sheet effort to help promote home ownership to lower- and middle-income Americans. It contends that the government doesn't have the ability to accurately price risk, and the private market does. Therefore, it should no longer guarantee the bulk of U.S. mortgages."
Indiviglio says the problem with the government being involved in financing homes is that the goal is politics, not profit.
Read the full story: 5 Ways the Government Screws Up Housing Finance
Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae to Back $1 Million Mortgages
Expensive housing markets are about to cross a symbolic threshold.
Federal Eviction and Foreclosure Moratorium Extended Until the End of August
Breaking news: a federal moratorium on evictions and foreclosures of single-family mortgages backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will be extended until at least the end of August. The moratorium had been set to expire at the end of June.
Art project makes NYC Citi Bikes physically harder to pedal in rent-burdened neighborhoods
Ground Truth, created by Brooklyn artist Justin Blinder, slows bikes down to make cyclists feel the burden of high rent.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Amtrak, CN end decades-long dispute with eight-year agreement
The new operating agreement establishes an updated framework for the companies to work together, including processes to resolve disputes.
Northwest rail fans eager for Sept. 30 debut of Amtrak’s Airo fleet
Get ready for that new train smell and more seats. But they won’t go faster or run more frequently on the Cascades route in Washington and Oregon.
St. Louis Metro to test if single-car trains can reduce operating costs, maintain rider satisfaction
The pilot program will run from October to spring 2027, and begin with one single-car train operating on Metrolink’s Red and Blue lines.
Pennsylvania is building data centers in abandoned mines
Housing data centers in mines provides an alternative to destroying local forests and may spare residents from data centers’ noise and air pollution.
If Corpus Christi can’t revive desalination plant project, it may owe Texas $235 million
Earlier this month, city officials declined to pursue developing the plant for the second time in a year.
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.
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