Nashville stakeholders are increasingly concerned by a post-Recession wave of real estate investment trusts buying up all the housing stock in neighborhoods gutted by the foreclosure crisis. The trend extends to other Sun Belt cities as well.

Researchers in Nashville have noticed the increasing reach of real estate investment trusts (REITs) in Nashville, and have decided to study the effects of such large-scale investments on the city's neighborhoods.
Mike Reicher reports on the big question from the Nashville real estate market:
They want to figure out whether these real estate investment trusts, or REITs, drive up sales prices because of increased competition and worsen the region’s affordable housing crisis. In the neighborhoods they target, do fewer people own their own homes? Do REITs increase rents at a faster pace than others? And what type of neighborhoods do the companies pick in the first place?
The research project is under the direction of Ken Chilton, associate professor in the Department of Public Administration at Tennessee State University, and Robert Silverman, a professor in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University at Buffalo in New York.
The research follows analysis from August by the Tennessean, which "found that six out-of-state investment groups own at least 4,900 homes in Smyrna, Murfreesboro, Antioch, Spring Hill, Mt. Juliet and several other fast-growing neighborhoods."
FULL STORY: Is Wall Street upending Nashville neighborhoods? These professors want to know

Alabama: Trump Terminates Settlements for Black Communities Harmed By Raw Sewage
Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

The 120 Year Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees
More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

In Both Crashes and Crime, Public Transportation is Far Safer than Driving
Contrary to popular assumptions, public transportation has far lower crash and crime rates than automobile travel. For safer communities, improve and encourage transit travel.

Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
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.
Clanton & Associates, Inc.
Jessamine County Fiscal Court
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS)
City of Grandview
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commissions
Salt Lake City
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service