Scott Beyer • 6 min read
There’s a sentiment among housing analysts and advocates—whether right or wrong—that the market can’t fully produce affordable housing. Especially in overheated real estate climates, like New York City and San Francisco, where land values are high and building lots of housing in certain neighborhoods will not necessarily make housing affordable in those neighborhoods. Instead, if they’re to be available to all income groups (which is a worthwhile goal given the economic and health benefits of living in good neighborhoods), policies need to be more intentional. The government, goes the thinking, needs to directly spur affordable housing production in these overheated areas.
Mark Fogarty • 5 min read
An idea that got its start at a kick-the-tires session about the future of Indianapolis four years ago has blossomed into an at least $15 million effort to enhance transit-oriented housing development (TOD) along that city’s expanding bus routes.
Scott Beyer • 6 min read
In the summer of 2017, a collection of institutions bet on the idea of “healthy” developments and neighborhoods. Seeing the health disparities in different parts of metro Boston, they financially backed the construction of buildings designed to spur good health outcomes for residents.
Mark Olshaker • 11 min read
“The housing crisis in many ways is worse than it’s ever been. We have a 7.5 million unit shortage for the lowest income group and it’s growing. More people are experiencing homelessness than ever before. There is an explosion of people suddenly homeless. In some communities on the West Coast, real estate prices are causing severe increases that affect everybody down the line.”
Darryl Hicks • 11 min read
Despite being one of the most idyllic places to live in America, Vermont suffers from a shortage of affordable housing. The legislature and the Vermont Housing Finance Agency are doing all they can to address the problem, but they have two strikes against them already.
Mark Olshaker • 10 min read
The New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) program faces political pressure. It is being questioned in some circles as no longer being necessary, now that other Trump-era initiatives, such as Opportunity Zone investments, have been put in place.
Mark Fogarty • 5 min read
The urban violence that RYSE Commons is being designed to give its young members refuge from is very real. Some of its early members have not lived to see the Richmond, CA complex completed.
Scott Beyer • 6 min read
The affordable housing shortage is a big issue in America, one that’s just now getting the national attention it deserves. Millions of Americans are affected, including ones who endure longer commutes, more cramped dwellings and more failing units than they otherwise would, if more decent housing were well-located.
Mark Fogarty • 6 min read
Talk about ambitious. Nashville’s Envision Cayce project is a big, dramatic effort to transform a neighborhood by building more than 2,000 new housing units and supporting facilities like a school, a health center and a pharmacy.
Thom Amdur • 3 min read
As we reported in last month’s issue, technology is transforming the commercial real estate and affordable housing sectors. It’s an exciting time of innovation; however, expectations for some of the industry giants have certainly been tested after SoftBank’s recent write downs of its investments in the panelization-unicorn Katerra and co-working-unicorn WeWork.
Darryl Hicks • 11 min read
“For the first time since we built the pyramids, we need to rethink the way we build things.” Cecil Phillips, chairman and chief executive of Atlanta, GA-based Place Properties, spoke those words at NH&RA’s Summer Institute in July, and emphasized them again when I interviewed him recently.
Mark Fogarty • 7 min read
It’s not true that construction is the least digitized niche of the national economy. For instance, Keith Stacker told a recent meeting of top affordable housing executives, agriculture is less digitized than construction. And so is hunting.