Archive for the ‘ Housing ’ Category

Matching homeless people with peopleless homes

A group of activists called Take Back the Land is moving homeless people into peopleless homes in Miami. This group seems to be inspired by the MST. Their mission: First, feed and house people. Taking control of land to feed and house those impacted by the crisis of gentrification and low-income housing is the ultimate in [ READ MORE ]

Trickle-up bail-out

A couple of Yale business management profs are advocating a position similar to mine on the bailout. Basically they suggest that the government spend the bailout money on simply buying up all delinquent mortgages and allowing the revalorization of the properties “trickle-up” to Wall Street. I’m a bit troubled by the suggestion as it would reward [ READ MORE ]

Foreclosure and eminent domain

I’m really sick right now, so this’ll be brief. I was wondering before if cities couldn’t use eminent domain to take over properties that have been foreclosed on and turn them into social housing. To the extent that foreclosed properties tend to deteriorate and bring down property values and living conditions in any given neighborhood, [ READ MORE ]

Section 8 ghettoizing the suburbs?

The NYTimes reports on the relation between Section 8 vouchers and the mortgage crisis in Antioch, CA. The upshot seems to be a mix of increased crime and increased profiling, both illegal. [ READ MORE ]

Gaseous housing percolates the economy

As the housing market continues to evaporate, legislators are close to passing a bill that will provide new federal guarantees for mortgages renegotiated to 85% of their original value at fixed rates for 30 years (for primary residences of homeowners who can demonstrate that they have the financial means to assure payments on the renegotiated [ READ MORE ]

Demise of homeownership

  • June 21st, 2008
  • Posted in Housing

The NYTimes has a good piece on the decline of W’s “ownership society” as it expresses itself in homeownership. Not so promising if you need to sell. “The bloom is off of homeownership,” said William C. Apgar, a senior scholar at the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University who ran the Federal Housing Administration [ READ MORE ]

421-a change

The NYTimes (almost my only source!) reports on the upcoming shift in NYC’s 421-a program, which has provided resellable tax abatements for the construction of below-market rate housing in areas in need of new housing. After June 30th, the complex system of tax abatements will be ended in favor of a city-controlled granting of support [ READ MORE ]

Diffusion of responsibility in NYC housing market

This article in the NYTimes reports on allegations of tenant harassment in buildings recently purchased by equity investors seeking to profit by ‘recapturing’ the market value of rent-controlled units. Tenant advocates claim that vacancy rates significantly above the city average of 5.6% indicate the probability of tenant harassment (by, for instance, repeated, groundless legal actions [ READ MORE ]

Housing visitors not residents

RV sent around a link to a NYTimes article that reports that the number of European real estate buyers has doubled over the last two years due to the favorable exchange rate. “We’d have had difficulty absorbing the elevated level of new development coming on the market without foreign buyers,” Mr. Miller said. “They are a [ READ MORE ]

Housing Prototypes

housingprototypes.org has a collection of photos and descriptions of housing types from around the world. [ READ MORE ]

Property Development in New Orleans

The NYTimes reports that property developers are beginning to invest in New Orleans. Seems like a bit of mixed news on mixed income though. “It is impossible now to develop conventionally financed apartment housing.” He said he did not accept tenants with federal housing vouchers. “We try to take people with good credit who want to [ READ MORE ]