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Strong Towns
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A Chaotic but Smart Organization
A Chaotic but Smart Organization

If you can't take a large problem and break it down into small, doable increments, you're not thinking hard enough. 

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Top StoryCharles MarohnMarch 1, 2016Chaotic but Smart
The Week Ahead
The Week Ahead

On this Leap Day, Chuck and Rachel discuss housing finance policy (last week's theme), a recent staff retreat to Disneyland, and a new membership page, plus behavioral economics.

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PodcastStrong TownsFebruary 29, 2016the week ahead
Last Chance to Enter the Strongest Town Contest
Last Chance to Enter the Strongest Town Contest

We know you've been putting it off all month -- now is the time to apply for our Strongest Town contest and tell the world how awesome your town is. The deadline to apply is March 4. 

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Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 29, 2016strongest town contest
Suburbia: The Discount-Rate Utopia
Suburbia: The Discount-Rate Utopia

The low density auto-dependent development pattern will persist for a few more decades. So will hyper dense concentrated city centers. And then both will decline as they become overwhelmed by multiple physical, economic, and political constraints. 

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Johnny SanphillippoFebruary 29, 2016suburbs
Our Top 10 Posts This Week
Our Top 10 Posts This Week

Read our most popular content from Housing Week.

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Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 27, 2016
Podcast: Federal Housing Finance Policy
Podcast: Federal Housing Finance Policy

Chuck is joined by Christopher Jones and Sarah Serpas of Regional Plan Association, a New York-based non-profit organization that recently released a report titled The Unintended Consequences of Housing Finance.

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PodcastStrong TownsFebruary 26, 2016RPA, federal housing policy
A Q&A with Richard Oram of the Oram Foundation
A Q&A with Richard Oram of the Oram Foundation

The Oram Foundation funded the creation of "The Unintended Consequences of Housing Finance," the RPA report we've been exploring this week. Chuck Marohn interviewed Richard Oram, Chairman of the Foundation to learn about how he got interested in housing finance and what he hopes the report will accomplish.

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Strong TownsFebruary 26, 2016RPA, housing market, federal housing policy, Congress for the New Urbanism
#BuildHereNow - Highlights from the Week
#BuildHereNow - Highlights from the Week

Our first #BuildHereNow crowdsourcing campaign was a tremendous success. Over the past week, our followers posted dozens of photos from cities across the United States and Canada on Twitter and Instagram. 

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Top StoryYuri ArtibiseFebruary 26, 2016
4 ways housing outcomes could be different
4 ways housing outcomes could be different

Federal financing rules started out as a way to help people. They’ve now become a mechanism that exploits. There is more to be gained by ending these programs than continuing them. 

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Top Story, MarohnCharles MarohnFebruary 26, 2016banks, housing cost, markets
More People Want Walkable Communities, but Outmoded Regulations Get in the Way
More People Want Walkable Communities, but Outmoded Regulations Get in the Way

Growing numbers of Americans want to live in walkable communities. Yet outdated federal restrictions make it harder to build the types of buildings that make these communities work, new RPA research has found.

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Top StoryRPAFebruary 26, 2016RPA
How the Federal Government can Increase Housing Options
How the Federal Government can Increase Housing Options

The federal government can improve housing choices and remove barriers to investing in urban areas, and especially in poor neigh­borhoods and without additional subsidy, simply by reforming the outdated program rules inhibiting mixed-use. 

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Top StoryRPAFebruary 26, 2016RPA, federal government, HUD, affordable housing, mixed use
Most affordable housing is not subsidized
Most affordable housing is not subsidized

Daniel Kay Hertz, a Senior Fellow at City Observatory, joins the Strong Towns Podcast this week to talk about housing finance and how it impacts disadvantaged neighborhoods.

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Top Story, PodcastStrong TownsFebruary 25, 2016affordable housing
Historic, Walkable Neighborhoods are a Scarce Commodity
Historic, Walkable Neighborhoods are a Scarce Commodity

The changes in our neighborhoods go far beyond a simple response to what homebuyers and renters wanted. In fact, governments at all levels implemented policies that effectively outlawed the kinds of traditional neighborhoods that Americans had lived in for generations.

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Top StoryDaniel Kay HertzFebruary 25, 2016FHA, segregation
Bootstrapping
Bootstrapping

When the federal government decided it was going to enter the housing market in the 1930's, it put us on a path that has slowly transformed what it means to bootstrap. We tell ourselves that anyone in American can make it big, but yet the rate of business startups has declined dramatically and median household net worth is at 1960's levels.

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Top Story, MarohnCharles MarohnFebruary 25, 2016
What Concentrated Poverty Looks Like in Inner-city Springfield
What Concentrated Poverty Looks Like in Inner-city Springfield

Residents in poor neighborhoods face health issues, unemployment, deteriorating infrastructure and no way to get out.

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Top StorySteven ShultisFebruary 25, 2016poverty, race, segregation
A Brief History of the Fair Housing Act and its Applications Today
A Brief History of the Fair Housing Act and its Applications Today

HUD has, with its mortgage funding, chosen to primarily support the creation of single-family dwellings, which are far more accessible to white middle class people and far less accessible to minorities in poverty. This contradicts Fair Housing laws and the Supreme Court's recent ruling on the subject.

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Top StoryRachel QuednauFebruary 25, 2016HUD, segregation, race, fair housing, housing
Financing rules reinforce concentrations of poverty
Financing rules reinforce concentrations of poverty

While the most common image of poverty is a high-rise public housing project, in fact many of America’s poor live in the very type of neighborhood where investment is impeded by current financing regulations. 

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RPAFebruary 25, 2016RPA, poverty, race, segregation, fair housing
The developer who was desperate to save a struggling neighborhood
The developer who was desperate to save a struggling neighborhood

Monte Anderson of Options Real Estate is a developer from the wrong side of town. Instead of fleeing for greener pastures and easier money, however, he stayed in his community and worked to make it better. Here's how he did it.

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Top Story, PodcastStrong TownsFebruary 24, 2016texas
How HUD Loan Policies Affect Small-Scale Developers
How HUD Loan Policies Affect Small-Scale Developers

Small developers who want to build modest mixed-use buildings on their town's Main Street are not able to access the favorable financing available to the developers of large single use suburban apartment complexes. 

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Top StoryR. John AndersonFebruary 24, 2016missing middle, RPA, HUD, multi-family, mixed use
The American Dream of Home Ownership
The American Dream of Home Ownership

Maybe we're doing it wrong.

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Top StoryStrong TownsFebruary 24, 2016mixed use, risk
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