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Zoning, Land-Use Planning, and Housing Affordability

Local zoning and land-use regulations have increased substantially over the decades. These constraints on land development within cities and suburbs aim to achieve various safety, environmental, and aesthetic goals. But the regulations have also tended to reduce the supply of housing, including multifamily and low-income housing. With reduced supply, many U.S. cities suffer from housing affordability problems.

Government Regulations Boost Housing Costs And Povert

“ The rent is too damn high ,” but, not to worry, your government is on the case, seeking to remedy problems largely of its own making with more market distorting rules that will drive housing costs even higher.

 

 
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Where new mobility and traditional transit are actually getting along

Pinellas County is home to perhaps the most advanced “micro-transit” system in action: a fleet of ride-hail vehicles that feeds into the bus system while reducing costs and expanding job access.

L.A.'s Transit-Oriented Communities Program Finds Affordable Housing Succes

The Los Angeles Transit-Oriented Communities program, which offers development bonuses in exchange for affordable housing in developments near transit lines, is the city's most successful affordable housing tool.

 

 
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Could a tax incentive pry empty nesters from their oversize homes?

One problem afflicting the Bay Area and other regions is that a growing percentage of people are “over-housed” or living in homes with unused bedrooms. This is largely because Baby Boomers make up a growing portion of the population and, like generations before them, can’t bear the stress of leaving a home full of memories and stuff.

How Will The New Tax Law Shake Up The Housing Market?

Just a couple of years ago, homeownership rates were low, and many analysts were blaming millennials. Burdened by more student debt than previous generations and typically inclined to marry and start a family later in life, millennials were a factor in 2016 homeownership rates falling to the lowest levels recorded by the U.S. Census Bureau going back to 1965.

 

 
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Is Inefficient Construction Worsening the Affordable Housing Crisis?

How rethinking the construction supply chain can reduce building material costs and increase access to housing.

Young People Don’t Want Construction Jobs. That’s a Problem for the Housing Market

Disinterest in construction work is contributing to a labor shortage that has meant fewer homes built and rising prices—possibly for years to come.

Here's how construction worker pay is dominating California's housing debate

The union representing construction workers, State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, also known as the Building Trades, is the most powerful group influencing the Legislature’s response to the housing crisis. It has worked to make sure union-level pay, known as “prevailing wage,” is a consideration in any major housing bills.

 

 
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Can this app help solve the housing affordability crisis?

The US-based organisation, founded by MIT urban planning graduates, Noelle Marcus and Rachel Goor, aims to match young people in need of affordable housing with older adults who can charge reasonable rent prices for the extra rooms in their homes.

The future of urban sustainability is renewable district energ

New design innovations can dramatically reduce the need for fossil fuels to help heat or cool a building.

Turning Generation Rent Into Generation Own

To make buying a home more affordable. How? – By applying A.I. technologies to understand the potential of tomorrow, enabling us to help people buy a home today.

 

 
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Now Even Apartment Dwellers Can Use Solar Power

More New York homeowners have tapped into solar power in recent years, as regulations have eased and prices have dropped. But apartment dwellers, for the most part, have been kept in the dark.

The Economic Impacts of Home Sharing in cities around the world

Over the past years, Airbnb conducted economic impact studies in cities around the world. This is a summary of what they've discovered.

 

 
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Empty storefronts repurposed as affordable housing

Some Michigan communities have an abundance of vacant storefronts and office buildings that serve as blight instead of anchors of neighborhood commerce. Some shuttered businesses could be reborn as housing for those who want to live closer to the jobs they seek.

3 ‘Must Do’s’ for Converting Historic Buildings into Affordable Housin

The current economy encourages nonprofit housing developers to convert historic buildings into affordable homes. Frances Ferguson, vice president of real estate programs at NeighborWorks America, shares some tips on how to avoid the main obstacles in doing so.

Why Malls Should Add Residential To Their Repurposing Plan

The retail apocalypse has not been kind to malls. Credit Suisse recently studied the state of mall-based retail and predicted that that about one-fourth of the nation's 1,100 shopping malls — or roughly 220 to 275 shopping centers — will close by 2022.

 

 
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The Overlooked Problem that Is Putting Thousands of Americans Underwater

New legislation to charge water bills based on monthly income is cropping up in Philadelphia and Baltimore, designed to keep people from drowning in water debt.

America's Utility Of The Future Forms Around Performance-Based Regulation

The utility business model is evolving in response to a fundamental shift in our power system economics.

Affordable Housing with Unaffordable Energy Bill

A terrible irony: affordable housing saddled with unaffordable energy bills that burden low-income families and the public housing agencies that assist them.

 

 
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21 Ideas for Building Sustainable Homes

What we build matters and so does how we build it. Building with sustainability in mind should be standard for the twenty first century home.

Incentive-Based Greening: A Primer for Promoting Sustainable Design Policies for Localities

Buildings are gluttonous consumers of natural resources: constructing buildings creates vast amounts of waste material and operating buildings contributes significantly to global pollution.

Home Improvements Equal Big Tax Break

It’s summertime and the weather is hot but the mercury isn’t the only thing that’s on the rise. If you’re constantly running the AC to keep cool, you may see your utility bills climb to astronomical proportions.

 

 
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Piece by Piece, a Factory-Made Answer for a Housing Squeeze

Developers are taking on residential building challenges by extending the concept of prefabricated housing to manufacture entire apartment buildings.

How Trump’s Lumber Tariffs May Have Helped Increase Home Prices

Tariffs on a Canadian import offer insights on what may happen in the United States economy as President Trump pursues his combative trade policy.

This House Costs Just $20,000—But It’s Nicer Than Yours

Rural Studio’s $20K House has such innovative design that it’s changing the entire housing system–from mortgages to zoning laws.

Gabe Moreno