creditnews: “Homeownership is one of the key pillars of the American dream. But for many families, the idyllic fantasy of a picket fence and backyard barbecues remains just that—a fantasy. Thanks to elevated mortgage rates, sky-high house prices, and scarce inventory, millions of American families have been locked out of the opportunity to buy a… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Housing
Artificial Intelligence Is Making The Housing Crisis Worse
The Lever: “…Landlords are increasingly turning to private equity-backed artificial intelligence (AI) screening programs to help them select tenants, and resulting cases like Robinson’s are just the tip of the iceberg. The prevalence of incorrect, outdated, or misleading information in such reports is increasing costs and barriers to housing, according to a recent report from… Continue Reading
Webinar – Environmental Law and the Things We Need to Build
Join the Witkin State Law Library and Professor Dave Owen for a free live webinar on “Environmental Law and the Things We Need to Build” on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at 6PM. Is environmental law keeping us from building important things—and from building things that would be good for the environment? Recently, that question has… Continue Reading
Are home prices still rising? See how prices have changed in your area
Washington Post: “Many first time home buyers are struggling to break into the U.S. housing market as prices continue to rise. Since 2019, home prices have surged 54 percent. In the last year, prices increased 5.8 percent — a more steady rise after the volatile years of the early pandemic, according to a Washington Post… Continue Reading
As Insurers Around the U.S. Bleed Cash From Climate Shocks, Homeowners Lose
The New York Times [unpaywalled]: “The insurance turmoil caused by climate change — which had been concentrated in Florida, California and Louisiana — is fast becoming a contagion, spreading to states like Iowa, Arkansas, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Even in the Northeast, where homeowners insurance was still generally profitable last year, the trends are worsening.… Continue Reading
City Trees Save Lives
Wired: “The humble tree has long protected humans from sickness and even death—and in the modern city, it’s still doing so. As global temperatures rise, so too does the “urban heat island effect”—the tendency for cities to absorb and hold on to the sun’s energy, which is a growing public-health crisis worldwide. On a small… Continue Reading
‘Seriously Underwater’ Home Mortgages Tick Up Across the US
Bloomberg via Yahoo Finance: “Roughly one in 37 homes are now considered seriously underwater in the US, and that share is much higher across a swath of southern states. Nationally, 2.7% of homes carried loan balances at least 25% more than their market value in the first few months of the year. That’s up from… Continue Reading
Cost of Living by County, 2023
Via Reddit: “Map created by me, an attempt to define cost of living tiers. People often say how they live in a HCOL, MCOL, LCOL area. Source for all data on cost of living dollar amounts by county, with methodology: https://www.epi.org/publication/family-budget-calculator-documentation/ To summarize, this cost of living calculation is for a “modest yet adequate standard… Continue Reading
Where seas are rising at alarming speed
Washington Post: “One of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth is besieging the American South, forcing a reckoning for coastal communities across eight U.S. states, a Washington Post analysis has found. At more than a dozen tide gauges spanning from Texas to North Carolina, sea levels are at least 6 inches higher than… Continue Reading
Spring 2024 Harvard Youth Poll
The Spring 2024 Harvard Youth Poll surveyed 2,010 young Americans between 18- and 29 years old nationwide, and was conducted between March 14-21, 2024. Top Issues – Inflation; Healthcare; Housing; Gun Violence – “A national poll released today by the Institute of Politics (IOP) at Harvard Kennedy School indicates that among 18-to-29-year-olds nationwide, more than… Continue Reading
The Flooding Will Come “No Matter What”
ProPublica – The complex, contradictory and heartbreaking process of American climate migration is underway – “This article is an excerpt from the book “On The Move: The Overheating Earth and the Uprooting of America,” about climate migration in the U.S. For more, see abrahm.com. “Another great American migration is now underway, this time forced by… Continue Reading
Mapping America’s access to nature, neighborhood by neighborhood
Washington Post – “A city is a science experiment. What happens when we separate human beings from the environment in which they evolved? Can people be healthy without nature? The results have been bleak. Countless studies have shown that people who spend less time in nature die younger and suffer higher rates of mental and… Continue Reading
