On Our Radar

Grist, April 5, 2024, In Chicago, One Neighborhood Is Fighting Gentrification And Climate Change At The Same Time The building is an example of what urban planners call Transit-Oriented Development, or TOD. The idea is that developing near transit stations leads to interconnected communities and fewer cars emitting carbon dioxide. Developers get incentives and neighbors get […]

AL.com, April 7, 2024, Historic Redlining Still Affects Cancer Care Today, UAB Researchers Find The study, by lead author Dr. Qasim Hussaini, an oncologist and researcher at UAB, looked at a range of outcomes in almost 200 cities where the government rated neighborhoods for mortgage lending in ways that discriminated against minorities. The practice that

Yahoo! Finance, April 7, 2024, Banks Are Building More Branches For The First Time In A Decade Last year banks added 94 net new branches across the US, according to new data released this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. That was the first annual period since 2012 they opened more than they closed.

Daily News, April 7, 2024, Sen. Schumer Expresses Concern Over Capital One Merger With Discover  Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is voicing concern that Capital One’s planned acquisition of Discover could cause inflated costs for credit card users in New York City and beyond. Schumer’s press releases included a copy of a Sunday letter he

The Washington Post, April 5, 2024, Court Clears Path For Reopening Antitrust Probe Of Realtors Group In a 21-page opinion, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed a lower-court decision that the Justice Department was barred from reopening its investigation because of complications arising out of a

90.5 WESA, April 2, 2024, Book On Slavery’s Wealth Touches Prominent Pittsburgh Philanthropists “The Stolen Wealth of Slavery: A Case for Reparations,” by journalist David Montero, tells the story of several modern-day corporations founded on profits from slavery. The companies include Citibank, Bank of America and investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. In 2022,

Greater Greater Washington, March 28, 2024, How Federal Stimulus Accidentally Bottlenecked Affordable Housing In DC Low-Income Housing Tax Credits are divided into two categories: 9% LIHTC and 4% LIHTC. 9% LIHTC provide an annual tax credit worth 9% of eligible costs for 10 years (so a total tax credit worth 90% of eligible costs). 4%

The New York Times, March 29, 2024, Why It’s So Expensive To Live In Phoenix Arizona exemplifies the stress over housing. Over the past decade, the allure of suburban life under cloudless skies has swelled the population of greater Phoenix to five million from 4.2 million, according to census data. The influx pushed housing prices

The Washington Post, March 30, 2024, Half Of Senior Staffers In Congress Are So Fed Up That They May Quit Only about one in five senior aides on Capitol Hill believe that Congress is “functioning as a democratic legislature should,” and about the same margin believe that it is “an effective forum for debate” on

ABA Banking Journal, March 30, 2024, Federal Court Pauses CRA Rule Implementation Following ABA Lawsuit A federal judge in Texas on Friday issued a preliminary injunction against enforcing new rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act in a lawsuit brought by the American Bankers Association and other business groups. “While we strongly support the goals of

Vox, April 1, 2024, Multigenerational Housing Is Coming Back In A Big Way The research arm of the apartment listing and resident services company RentCafe went granular on Gen Z and found that 68 percent over the age of 18 still live with a parent or parents. As for millennials, 20 percent are back with mom

The Baltimore Sun, March 26, 2024, Maryland Environment Bill Draws Concern From Communities It Aims To Protect A bill before the General Assembly this year has been hailed by Maryland’s environment secretary as a critical next step for incorporating environmental justice into state decision-making. But it doesn’t have the support of the community that the

Business Insider, March 26, 2024, Housing Affordability Has Improved, But Not By Much According to Redfin, prospective buyers in the US need to make $114,000 a year to afford the median-priced home. That’s 35% more than the typical US household median income of $84,072.  In terms of location, buyers in San Antonio, Texas only needed

Next City, March 26, 2024, A Long-Awaited Black-Led Credit Union Finally Gets The Green Light Chartering a new credit union today is like traversing a long lost trail through the woods, one that used to be well-traveled but is now overgrown, littered with fallen trees and other obstacles no one has had to navigate in many

Axios Columbus, March 26, 2024, First-Time Buyers Dominate Ohio Housing Market First-time homebuyers received 63% of mortgage offers in Ohio in 2023, per a recent LendingTree report. Why it matters: It’s one more sign current homeowners are still feeling the golden-handcuffs effect of not wanting to give up existing low-rate mortgages, Axios’ Brianna Crane and Simran Parwani write.