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.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
Eastern Nebraska is running out of electricity
Data centers and electrification are straining eastern Nebraska’s grid, throttling economic development.
Malls are becoming the midtowns of the future
Mall and office park redevelopments are a generational opportunity to create new nodes of urbanity.
NYC breaks ground on anti-flooding infrastructure project
New York City's new system will reduce stormwater flows to local sewers by 90%.
One Kentucky town’s secret to affordable housing
The Smoketown Community Land Trust has already built seven affordable homes for community members.
Houston gains petal-shaped cooling infrastructure to make streets more ‘delightful’
The city has installed the pavilions along 15 blocks in Houston.
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.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority