Vacant Homes
Checking in on Detroit’s Housing Renaissance
Efforts by the city and residents have generated 17,000 new housing units in the last five years.
Baltimore Program Could Repurpose Thousands of Vacant Housing Units
The city and state are investing $3 billion in rescuing vacant residential properties to promote homeownership and reduce blight.
Milwaukee Selects Developers to Rehab Vacant Homes
A record 66 developers applied to refurbish 150 vacant, city-owned homes.
Vacancy Tax Considered in Toronto
Owning a home with no one living in it could soon come with a penalty in Toronto.
Vancouver Again Raises its Empty Homes Tax
The Vancouver Empty Homes Tax will soon be three times as high as it was when adopted in 2017.
Vacancy Taxes as a Response to the Housing Crisis
Could vacancy taxes solve multiple housing challenges at once?
Two Perspectives on Surging Canadian Housing Costs
Real estate prices in Toronto and Vancouver continue to rise, but there is not consensus about what is behind the growing housing crisis and the best solutions to pursue.
Effective Strategies for Tackling Vacant Properties
Urban homesteading as a response to hypervacancy is in the news after South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg proposed the Douglass Plan while on the presidential campaign trail.
Luxury Condos for Sale in Vancouver as Non-Resident Owners Balk at New Taxes
A tax on non-resident property owners is working as it's intended, as a wave of luxury condo units hit the real estate market all over the city of Vancouver.
Vancouver's Homeowner Vacancy Rate Nearly 5 Percent
Thousands of homes in the city were found to be underused and subject to a vacancy tax.
Paris Targets Vacant Second Homes With 60% Tax
7.5 percent of homes in the French capital have no one living in them.
'Vacant Home Tour' Reimagines Blight
It's not your typical walking tour: A resident-led project in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania explores the history of a community through its blighted properties.
Why Did a 'Mysterious' Company Buy Hundreds of Properties in St. Louis?
Over the course of a year beginning in June 2008, a 'mysterious holding company' named Urban Assets bought 240 parcels across a five-mile swath of the north side of St. Louis. Since then, it's just let them decay.
Can a Dollar and a Dream Bring Back Gary, Indiana?
Just south of Chicago, the city of Gary is suffering from post-industrial blight, decaying infrastructure, and declining finances - an all too common trajectory in the Rust Belt. A program selling vacant homes for $1 hopes to stabilize neighborhoods.
Can Algorithms Expedite the Activation of Vacant Properties?
With thousands of abandoned homes located in neighborhoods of varying shape and character, Chicago has a massive challenge in returning its vacant properties to active use. Can algorithms help leaders decide on the right solutions?
Federal Funds Intended to Help Homeowners Will Instead Fund Demolitions
Federal money earmarked to help prevent foreclosures and assist underwater homeowners will instead be used to fund housing demolitions in a $100 million pilot project in five Michigan cities.
Vacant Homes Plague D.C. Suburbs
Even in the Washington D.C. region, which survived the Great Recession with one of the strongest economies in the country, foreclosed and vacant homes are a stubborn presence in many neighborhoods, including affluent ones.
Squatting on the Rise in Detroit
With more than 100,000 empty homes within the city of Detroit, squatters are increasingly moving in.
I See Ghost Counties
Jan Willem Tulp created a stunning visualization showing the relationship between number of vacant homes in U.S. counties and the total number of homes in that county.
One Year Down, 3,000 Homes Demolished
Officials in Detroit have demolished 3,000 buildings over the course of the last year, a goal set by Mayor Dave Bing.
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
