'Failing' affordable housing system 'requires decisive federal leadership'

May 29, 2018                      By: Naaman Zhou

Academics call for independent advisory body and long-term approach

A national housing strategy is needed to fix Australia’s “failing” affordable housing system, according to a report from academics at the University of Sydney, the University of New South Wales and Curtin University.

The report, released by the Australian Housing and Urban Research Instituteon Tuesday, called for a coordinated “whole-of-government” approach and decisive federal leadership.

It said Australia’s housing policy was “weak and/or inappropriate” and public funding was inadequate.

Australia has a shortfall of more than 200,000 affordable dwellings. In New South Wales there are more than 60,000 households on the social and affordable housing waiting list, and more new dwellings were constructed between 1990 and 1995 than 1995 and 2010....................Read More

Why are nearly 1 in 4 Millennials still living with mom? Lack of affordable housing

May 28, 2018                                            By:  Annie Nova, CNBC

Looks like many Millennials won't have to go out of their way to see mom for Mother's Day.

That's because nearly 23% of Millennials already live with their mother, according to a new report from Zillow, an online real estate database company. In 2005, about 14% did so.

To crunch the numbers, Zillow analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data from 2005 through 2016, focusing on households in the 50 largest metros that included a mom, and a younger resident age 24 to 36.

"You would expect young adults living at home to return to historic norms," said Aaron Terrazas, senior economist at Zillow, speaking about how we've recovered from the housing bubble. "But the trend hasn't decreased — if anything, it's increased.".................Read More

How Do We Proactively Preserve Unsubsidized Affordable Housing?

May 23, 2018                         By: David Luberoff, Deputy Director

Robust land bank and land trust partnerships, long-term lease-purchase programs, and low-interest renovation loans with affordability requirements are three tools that policymakers and mission-driven organizations can use to get ahead of real estate price appreciation, according to Proactive Preservation of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing in Emerging Markets: Lessons from Atlanta, Cleveland, and Philadelphia, a new working paper jointed published by the Joint Center for Housing Studies and NeighborWorks® America. Written by Matt Schreiber, a Master of Urban Planning student at the Harvard Graduate School of Design who was a 2017 Edward M. Gramlich Fellow in Community and Economic Development, the paper draws on work done by public and non-profit entities in all three cities.

North Philadelphia (Credit: Tony Fischer/Flickr)

In those places, Schreiber notes, median house prices range from $60,000 to $250,000, which suggests that they have an ample supply of affordable units. However, housing in those markets actually remains out of reach for so many residents, whose incomes are not growing as rapidly as house prices, which, according to Zillow's Home Value Index, rose by 8-11 percent in 2017. Such increases, and the fact that prices rose in more than 90 percent of the zip codes in those three cities, led Schreiber to ask what policymakers and the leaders of mission-driven organizations could do to get ahead of real estate price appreciation and, in doing so, proactively preserve their city's stock of affordable housing.................Read More

HUD's proposed changes create hurdles not ladders

5/14/2018            By: Aufa Atta-Mensah & Connie M. Razza, Opinion Contributor

In the midst of a Twitter feed alight with stories about police being used to shut black people out of places to eat, drink, exercise, and relax, comes a story about Trump’s Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) using policy to do the same. The federal government is adding new and significant hurdles to communities of color — particularly black people — being able to access housing.

Reporting earlier this year revealed that HUD is intending to remove from its mission the goal of creating inclusive, discrimination-free communities. It has retreated from pending fair-housing enforcement actions. And it closed April — the month that marks the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act — with a proposal that will harm the families most in need of housing assistance. The so-called “Making Affordable Housing Work Act of 2018” increases rents, enables work requirements, and worsens the prospects for families and communities..............Read More

The Case for Building Public Housing That Doesn't Suck - And Lots of It

May 2, 2018                         By: Eli Day

An interview with the co-author of an ambitious plan to tackle America's housing crisis.

Housing has been one of the single greatest vehicles for building wealth in the United States. Yet the ranks of Americans who can’t find affordable housing are swelling.

Although the problem goes back decades, the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008 and the recession that followed made it impossible to ignore how dysfunctional America’s housing landscape has become. Today, nearly half of renters pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing. After declining during the Obama years, the number of homeless people rose to over 550,000 in 2017. According to the Urban Institute, there is only enough “adequate, affordable and available” housing for 46 percent of the roughly 11.8 million extremely low-income households. Nevertheless, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson is touting legislation that would triple rents for some of the poorest public housing residents.......................Read More

IRS Releases Official Population Figures to Calculate LIHTCs, PABs

May 3, 2018                           By:  Novogradac & Company LLP

Reporting an annual growth rate of 0.7 percent nationwide to 325.7 million residents, the Internal Revenue Service today released official population figures for the 2018 calendar year for purposes of calculating states’ allocations of low-income housing tax credits (LIHTCs) and private activity bonds. The state LIHTC cap is the greater of $2.70 per resident or $3,105,000 and state bond caps are the greater of $105 per resident or $310,710,000. Idaho and Nevada were the fastest growing states by percentage, while Texas and Florida gained the most residents by numeric growth. Eight states dropped in population, with Illinois having the largest numeric decline...................Read More