On Our Radar

Reuters, May 22, 2024, US Home Sales Post Second Straight Monthly Drop; House Prices Accelerate WASHINGTON, May 22 (Reuters) – U.S. existing home sales unexpectedly fell in April as higher mortgage rates and house prices weighed on demand, dealing another setback to the housing market. Though the report from the National Association of Realtors on […]

The Wall Street Journal, May 20, 2024, They Were Used to Five-Star Service At First Republic. Now They’re Just Regular Customers. First Republic Bank FRCB -33.33% decrease; red down pointing triangle had a knack for making customers feel special. Its new owner isn’t getting such rave reviews.  Over Memorial Day weekend, all First Republic customers were moved over

Housingwire, May 21, 2024, Zillow’s New AI Tool Aims To Promote Equality In Housing Zillow announced the release of an open-source tool, the Fair Housing Classifier, on Tuesday as part of the company’s efforts to “promote responsible and unbiased behavior in real estate conversations powered by large language model (LLM) technology.“ In a news release, Zillow explained that artificial intelligence (AI)

Next City, May 21, 2024, A Major New Step Toward Public Banking In Rochester Here at Next City, we’ve covered efforts to create city-owned banks in Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and the East Bay. We’ve also covered efforts to create state-owned banks in California, Massachusetts and New Mexico. Sometimes, as in the case of New York or California, state legislation has been

Next City, May 23, 2024, A Unique Community Land Trust Making Homeownership Affordable In Richmond When Michael Haggins’ credit score disqualified him for a mortgage preapproval in 2021, he was crushed. A single father who grew up in Richmond, Haggins dreamed of owning a house in his hometown where his two sons could play freely. A shortage

The Wall Street Journal, May 27, 2024, Why A California Plan To Build More Homes Is Failing When California legislators voted in 2021 to eliminate zoning laws that require neighborhoods to have only single family homes, supporters celebrated it as a tool to alleviate the state’s crippling housing shortage. Opponents said it heralded the end of homeownership

The Washington Post, May 27, 2024, Justice Department Fines VA. Tech Firm Over ‘Whites Only’ Job Posting A Virginia-based technology company will pay more than $38,000 in penaltiesfor posting a discriminatory job advertisement that only sought to hire White U.S. citizens, the Justice Department announced. Arthur Grand Technologies Inc., a firm that provides information technology

The Washington Post, May 28, 2024, Skyrocketing Rents And Home Prices May Be Pivotal In The 2024 Election LAS VEGAS — D. Carter paid $1,525 for rent, cable and WiFi for her one-bedroom apartment until her monthly rent jumped to $2,100 last year. Unwilling and unable to pay the new rate, Carter, who spoke on

WHYY, May 29, 2024, ‘A Huge Deterrent Effect’: Philly City Council Seeks To Strengthen Anti-Discrimination Law Philadelphia City Council has advanced legislation designed to strengthen a city law that protects against housing discrimination. The city’s Fair Practices Ordinance prohibits landlords and property managers from discriminating against people based on what’s known as “source of income,”

The Washington Post, May 27, 2024, What Does It Take To Buy A House? Increasingly, Mom And Dad. Home buyers are increasingly turning to family members, most often parents, for help buying a house in overpriced and undersupplied markets, reflecting a shift in the way many families finance homeownership. The share of young home buyers

Politico, June 12,2024, Six States Where Housing Is Hard To Find-Here’s What Governors Are Doing About It Population changes spurred by the pandemic. Byzantine zoning laws that make construction agonizingly slow and expensive. Stagnant wages amid stubborn inflation rates. All these factors have contributed to years of skyrocketing housing prices — and leaders in Washington, including

The New York Times, June 8, 2024, How an American Dream of Housing Became a Reality in Sweden As an architect, Ivan Rupnik thinks the solution to America’s affordable housing shortage is obvious: Build more houses. Start today. But the way homes are built in the United States makes speed impossible. Years ago, Rupnik’s Croatian

CBS News, June 11, 2024, New $23 million Detroit Housing Project Opens Near Michigan Central A new $23 million mixed-use housing project has been completed near the newly renovated Michigan Central. The Brooke on Bagley is a mixed-use and mixed-income housing development at 2420 Bagley. It consists of 78 apartments, 16 of which are affordable housing

Vox, May 2, 2024, What If Canceling People’s Medical Debt Doesn’t Help Them? Four in 10 Americans carry some kind of medical debt, an affliction that is unique to the United States among wealthy nations. The country does not guarantee medical insurance to everyone, and the costs even to people who carry coverage are much higher on average than they

The New York Times, May 9, 2024, A Little-Known Way Home Buyers Can Beat High Mortgage Rates Home prices were already high when Ellen Harper, a software architect living in Atlanta, started searching for a house in 2021. But she couldn’t have anticipated the quick surge in interest rates the next year, and, even with