As consumer real estate debt surpasses $9 trillion, TIME magazine examines four radical proposals that top policymakers and economists think will help turn things around.
"Two and a half years on from the crisis, just 760,000 Americans, or 1.5% of the country's 51 million mortgage holders, have received modifications through Barack Obama's signature program, the Home Affordable Modification Program - and nearly half of them have defaulted anyway. After a total of $18 billion in government spending on housing bailouts since 2008, the President declared in early July that the efforts had largely failed," report Massimo Calabresi and Stephen Gangel.
Cognizant that housing will once again be on voters' minds in the upcoming 2012 elections, the Obama White House is ready to roll out another program to ameliorate the financial distress facing homeowners across the nation.
Weighing in on the top four proposals, Calabresi and Gangel write, "[E]conomists and politicians are embracing increasingly radical ideas as a seemingly obvious fact gains consensus. America can't get out of its economic doldrums until it fixes the problem that caused the crisis in the first place: housing."
FULL STORY: How To Save The Housing Market: Destroy Houses
Proposed Bill Would Outlaw Nearly Half of Cleveland's Airbnbs
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Mapping Tool Enables Housing Action in Detroit and Beyond
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Texas Bills Could Push More People Into Homelessness
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Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
Canada vs. Kamala: Whose Liberal Housing Platform Comes Out on Top?
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The Five Most-Changed American Cities
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San Diego Adopts First Mobility Master Plan
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Housing, Supportive Service Providers Brace for Federal Cuts
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Op-Ed: Why an Effective Passenger Rail Network Needs Government Involvement
An outdated rail network that privileges freight won’t be fixed by privatizing Amtrak.
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.
New York City School Construction Authority
Village of Glen Ellyn
Central Transportation Planning Staff/Boston Region MPO
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions