Housing
The Top 10 Cities for Millennial Homebuyers—Starting With Des Moines
A list of cities with the highest percentage of homebuyers described by the category of Millennial is conspicuously absent of expensive, coastal cities.
Bay Area Extreme Commuting for the Love of Larger, Affordable Single Family Homes
It's a tradeoff that 3.9 percent of the Bay Area workforce are willing to make to own an affordable home. It's often not even a choice between living in the city or the suburbs, but the close-in suburbs or the exurbs or San Joaquin Valley.
Seattle's Struggle to Build Affordable Housing
The Emerald City's affordable housing difficulties mirror those of New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and others: too much demand and too few resources.
Chicago Rule Change Encourages Affordable Housing
This month, changes to Chicago's Affordable Requirements Ordinance (ARO) will go into effect, raising the in-lieu fees developers must pay to opt out of building affordable units downtown.
The Charms of 'Illegal Neighborhoods'
A longtime resident of an old, eclectic neighborhood reflects on what makes the area so desirable and why new places like it are effectively outlawed today.
What 'Show Me a Hero' Teaches About Segregation and Race
David Simon believes the events depicted in his new HBO mini-series were the result of a history of systematic hyper-segregation in America. HUD Secretary Castro agrees.
Density Bonuses Proposed to Spur Affordable Housing in San Francisco
Mayor Ed Lee this week proposed a density bonus policy that would help the city build approximately 16,000 new units of housing, including 5,000 affordable units along select transit corridors.
Exclusionary Schooling: The Forces that Widen the Achievement Gap
Sixty years after Brown v. Board, exclusionary zoning and school district rules still promote the economic and racial segregation of public schools.
Is Older Necessarily Better? The Immaculate Conception Theory of Neighborhood Origin
Critics often assume that newer buildings are inferior to old. The same was said when the old buildings were new.
Report: There's a Right Way to Do Inclusionary Zoning
A new study from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy makes the case for well-timed, thoughtful use of inclusionary zoning as a tool to support diverse, affordable communities.
German Cities Rewrite Building Codes to Provide Homes for Refugees
Germany has reformed building codes in a marshaling of political will known as the "Culture of Welcome" for an expected one million refugees. German cities, many of them shrinking for decades, see the refugees as an opportunity and a responsibility.
Still Gritty: Crime Wave in Downtown Los Angeles
As people and jobs stream into the district, downtown's long-simmering problems butt up against vigorous urban renewal. Crime is up, but so are property values.
Op-Ed: Stop Attacking My Suburb!
A proud suburban resident defends her neighborhood from the criticisms of city-dwellers. It's not walkable, it's not perfect, but it's home.
Study: 'Severely Cost-Burdened Renters' Could Increase 25 Percent
A study by Enterprise Community Partners and Harvard's Joint Center on Housing Studies includes dire predictions about the future of an already-deeply-troubled rental market.
Visualizing the Housing Stock of American Cities
A simple chart allows an easy comparison between the varieties of housing that comprise the housing stock of U.S. cities.
Changes to Detroit's Foreclosure Auctions Disempower Homeowners and Tenants
A new law makes it impossible for property owners delinquent on their property taxes to bid in a foreclosure auction to keep their homes. Larger, commercial interests are benefitting from the change.
The Economics of Rent Control
A simple explanation of why strict rent control reduces housing supply, and why moderate rent control does so to a much lesser extent.
The Katrina Cottage Legacy
The New Urbanist Katrina Cottages initiative for the Gulf Coast appeared to be a failure but their legacy lives on in the SmartDwellings and in the Tiny House movement.
Unintended Consequences Predicted for de Blasio's Inclusionary Zoning Policy
According to New York Yimby, Mayor de Blasio's proposed inclusionary zoning policy could do more to protect small market-rate developments, without affordable housing, than it will to create affordable units.
City Report: Mission Moratorium Backfires on its Goals
A new report from the San Francisco Office of Economic Analysis shows that Prop. 1, an 18-month moratorium on the development of market-rate housing in the Mission to appear on November's ballot, would not meet the housing goals it seeks to attain.
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.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
