We are profoundly conflicted as a nation when it comes to housing: we want it to be affordable, but we also want its prices to rise fast enough to be valuable as a financial investment.
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There’s probably no panacea for housing affordability. Here are 5 immutable laws of affordable housing that cities must recognize if they want to move forward. Plus 3 strategies for doing so.
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American housing policy sucks because we’ve been using the bare minimum of strategies to both increase production and create affordability. We need to try every idea in the book.
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Increasing affordable housing doesn't have to require millions in public dollars or fancy new construction.
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Until cities can lower the cost of building affordable housing, they'll never be able to create enough of it.
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If big developers keep snatching up huge plots of land in my city, I may never own a home. But if land is sold in smaller increments, that means more opportunities for small developers and home owners.
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I’m not sure what hurts more—knowing that people are willing to trade off that much of their income to not live “here”, or that someone I really respect has to pay so much to live in a way which, apart from the size of the home, is just a standard living arrangement in most parts of the developed world.
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The Fuller Center for Housing has helped dozens of Allendale families build and own their own homes and they have high hopes for the neighborhood. But until the I-49 connector is put to rest, investment in the area will be stifled.
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Three simple tactics could expand affordable housing options in Lexington, KY and other midsize cities like it.
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We figured out how to live in an exciting kid-friendly city on the cheap.
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This fall, five articles explored important questions about the cost of housing and the need for "growth" and development in Portland, OR.
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A reliance on federal funding for housing puts local entities at the mercy of distant decision makers whose priorities may or may not be aligned with theirs. Cities and advocacy groups should be thinking about how to re-localize and claim more control over the way we tackle these problems.
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The task of moving from our bloated, modern zoning codes to ones that create Strong Towns is different from starting with a blank slate.
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If so many people live in suburbs, it must be because that’s what they prefer, right? Actually the evidence is to the contrary.
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The Cato Institute recently published an article claiming that cash-strapped millennials in Seattle should look instead to Houston for affordable homes. There's a lot wrong with that argument.
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Our job as Strong Towns advocates is to share our message with our friends, neighbors and others in our communities, to keep bringing the conversation back to the persistent fact that our current approach is not working financially. We’re broke and so we must start thinking differently.
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A fetish with density is spiking the rising tide of housing demand in cities like Portland. To make housing affordable, we have to deal with the cause of the spike.
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When the issue of housing affordability comes up again and again, it is always tied to the agreed upon narrative that Portland is growing and will continue to grow, world without end. I don't buy that.
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Questioning 4 common arguments about why housing is unaffordable in Portland.
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Two case studies show how rural design can be sustainable, affordable and attractive.
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