On Our Radar

The New York Times, February 8, 2024, New York City’s Housing Crunch Is the Worst It Has Been in Over 50 Years The portion of rentals that were vacant and available dropped to a startling 1.4 percent in 2023, according to city data released on Thursday. It was the lowest vacancy rate since 1968 and […]

The New York Times, February 8, 2024, New York City’s Housing Crunch Is The Worst It Has Been In Over 50 Years The portion of rentals that were vacant and available dropped to a startling 1.4 percent in 2023, according to city data released on Thursday. It was the lowest vacancy rate since 1968 and

Planetizen, February 7, 2024, ‘Worrying Trend’: Number of Housing Cost-Burdened Seniors At All-Time High According to a recent report from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, nearly 11.2 million U.S. adults aged 65 and older spent more than 30 percent of their household income on housing costs. The figure is up from 9.7 million

CalMatters, February 7, 2024, Los Angeles’ One Weird Trick To Build Affordable Housing At No Public Cost But unlike the vast majority of affordable developments that have been proposed in California in recent memory, no taxpayer dollars are allotted to build the thing. Especially in the state’s expensive coastal cities, the term “unsubsidized 100% affordable

HousingWire, February 7, 2024, Consumer Sentiment Toward Housing Reaches Its Highest Level In Nearly Two Years Consumer sentiment toward housing reached its highest level since March 2022, fueled by increased confidence in job security and a higher share of people who expect mortgage rates to decrease. Fannie Mae’s home purchase sentiment index (HPSI) — which

The Denver Post, February 6, 2024, U.S. Department Of Education Opens Two Investigations Into Allegations Of Racial Discrimination At Denver Public Schools The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating allegations that Denver Public Schools discriminated against students and others based on their race when it formed a committee to review the

Yahoo Finance, February 7, 2024, New York Community Bancorp Stock Slides Amid Warnings Over ‘Governance Risk’ New York Community Bancorp shares fell 9.5% before the bell on Wednesday, bracing for another challenging trading session after analysts expressed caution about “governance risks” at the bank. Investors have fled the stock since the lender last week reported

Newsweek, February 5, 2024, Housing Market Sales ‘Crash’ Amid Real-Estate Recession Warning After booming for two years during the pandemic, the U.S. housing market experienced a significant price correction between late summer 2022 and spring 2023. Higher mortgage rates—which last year reached two-decade highs—caused demand to plummet and prices to slide across the country, something that led

Bloomberg, February 4, 2024, Why NYC Apartment Buildings Are On Sale Now For 50% Off For landlords the playbook had long been simple and lucrative. Buy run-down buildings that are, in New York lingo, rent-stabilized. Fix them up. Pass along the expense to tenants by raising rents, which was allowed under the regulations. Cash out.

Fox Business, February 1, 2024, Rising Costs Of Housing Pushing Millennials To Make ‘Drastic Sacrifices’ By Living In Vans For Years Younger people are opting to live in cost-effective vans and showcase their tiny living quarters on TikTok to the fascination of the internet.  Michael Alberse, a TikToker with 57,000 followers, moved into a van

Next City, February 1, 2024, Gentrification’s Roots In The Post-Industrial City Thus in San José, one of the richest cities in the United States, the “capital” of a region whose name is popularly associated with opportunity and young wealth, the average service industry worker’s salary of $35,241 is shockingly close to the $25,800 it costs

Tampa Bay Times, February 2, 2024, How Corporate Investors Are Taking Over Tampa Bay’s Neighborhoods Housing in Tampa Bay is becoming increasingly corporate-owned, a Tampa Bay Times analysis has found. Large companies have amassed around 27,000 homes across three counties. More than 70% of these properties are linked to institutional investors backed by Wall Street

KJZZ, February 1, 2024, From Drug-Exposed Babies To At-Risk Students, How AZ Marijuana Money Is Helping Nonprofits A very small cut from every recreational marijuana sale in Arizona gets set aside for what Proposition 207 authors described as justice reinvestment. The state treasury has put more than $26 million into a namesake fund. Now health officials

The Hill, February 5, 2024, This Florida Mall Has Gucci, Prada…And Soon, Affordable Housing? In Bal Harbour, Fla., an oceanside village north of Miami Beach, a luxury mall says it wants to help tackle one of the nation’s — and Florida’s — most intractable problems: a lack of affordable housing. It is an unexpected move

The Hill, February 4, 2024, ‘The US Is On An Unsustainable Fiscal Path’ “The US federal government’s on an unsustainable fiscal path. And that just means that the debt is growing faster than the economy. So, it is unsustainable. I don’t think that’s at all controversial,” Powell said when asked if the national debt is