Housing Costs
Novel Solutions for Affordable Housing
The housing crisis calls for creative solutions.
Big Investment Firms Are Dominating the Landlord Business
Large investment companies are betting against homeownership—by buying up homes in suburban areas and putting them on the rental market.
Op-Ed: To Lower Housing Costs, Make it Cheaper and Easier to Build Housing
The argument in the headline, put more specifically: inclusionary zoning, fees, legal challenges, and minimum apartment sizes are counter-productive. The only policy that will add housing stock, is to make it much cheaper to add housing stock.
Chicago's Black Residents Continuing to Leave the City
The Census shows that black residents are leaving Chicago and the surrounding areas. Many tie the trend to disinvestment in black neighborhoods, including the closings of schools.
Gay Neighborhoods Are Getting More and More Expensive
Trulia has created a "Neighborhood Pride Score" to determine the communities with the largest gay populations. Access to those neighborhoods comes at a high price.
Homeless Numbers Continue to Rise in and Around Los Angeles
Rents continue to rise in Los Angeles and more people are living in their cars.
Some Hoping to Build Housing See Churches as an Obstacle
Miami-Dade Commissioner Barbara Jordan has expressed concerns that seldom-used churches aren’t paying taxes, take up valuable land, and would be better used to build housing for the Black community.
Exposé: Development Obstruction in Los Angeles
Homeowners groups use their influence to extract payments and concessions in Los Angeles.
Homeless People and Expensive Housing Cause an Identity Crisis in Berkeley
The city of Berkeley is suffering the consequences of the urban revival—soaring housing costs and humanitarian crises don't reconcile with the city's famously progressive politics.
Families Feel Pushed Out of San Francisco
Many families cannot afford to live in San Francisco, where housing prices are high and houses fit for families raising children are hard to come by.
Rents Falling at the Upper End of New York's Real Estate Market
The construction of thousands of rental apartments in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens are credited with driving down costs at the upper end of the New York City rental market.
Vancouver May Fast-Track Modular Laneway Homes
The city of Vancouver has emerged as a leader in "laneway" housing: secondary units built onto existing lots, often facing an alleyway. To boost supply, the city may expedite permitting for modular units.
Comparing Energy Costs in Cities Around the Country
Residents of Rust Belt cities might pay less for housing, but they pay a lot more for energy.
Affordable Housing and the 2016 Election
The cost of housing affects millions across the country, but the issue has been conspicuously absent in the campaigns. Hillary Clinton's plan includes an imprecise remedy, while Donald Trump's pronouncements have been vaguer still.
Op-Ed: Stay Expensive, New York—It Helps the Rest of the U.S.
Here's a controversial assertion: expensive, desirable cities are doing everyone else a favor by forcing people to move.
Planetizen Week in Review: August 1, 2016
Political junkies, map nerds, and transit fans all got plenty of big news to digest during the last week of July 2016.
Report: Britain's Suburbs on the Decline
London's central core never experienced the deterioration many American downtowns lived through, but the inner city/suburb dynamic was still at play. Now poverty is moving outward.
Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit Employees Get a Raise—Months Before Operations Begin
The North San Francisco Bay Area has lacked passenger rail for decades—but the process of hiring the staff necessary to operate the line on a daily basis has been complicated by the cost of housing in the area.
Op-Ed: The Texas Miracle Won't Last
As economic migration continues to swell its population, Texas has been heralded by some as a new California. But Johnny Sanphillippo argues that the Lone Star State's boom just isn't sustainable.
Conceptual Shift: New York's Growing Again
For decades, New York City's boom times lay deep in the past. Now that the city's growing again, Aaron Renn says New York may need to take cues from the Sun Belt, of all places.
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.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
