This article was originally published, in slightly different form, on Strong Towns member Michel Durand-Wood’s blog, Dear Winnipeg. It is shared here with permission. One of the most talked about issues these days is housing affordability, or rather, the lack of it. Whether talking about the ability to afford housing in general, or “Capital A” affordable housing (aka social or public housing) specifically, it seems nearly everyone agrees that housing isn’t affordable for too many people. And it’s getting worse. But that’s not a bug of our current housing policies. It’s a feature. That’s how i ..read more

The U.S. Department of Justice is opening a criminal investigation into a major software company called RealPage, which is described in the lawsuit as the “big tech” company of rental housing. It provides software that is used by landlords (and, typically, landlords who are large holders of rental property) to estimate supply and demand for their listings in order to help them maximize rents. The question is whether or not RealPage is facilitating algorithmic price fixing for some of the largest residential property owners and management firms—amounting to what DC Attorney General Brian Schwa ..read more

If you’re among the large number of Americans who want to see rents come down and stay down, then recent trends in apartment construction should concern you. I follow enough real estate folks online, both actual developers and analysts, that it’s been impossible to miss a pervasive pessimism about the short-term outlook for building…well, nearly anything. The developers I follow who build apartment buildings and generally have good insights into that process are almost all saying things like this: “If you are out there doing real estate deals ..read more

Last year, Strong Towns wrote about Washington, DC’s, bold plan to reconfigure Connecticut Avenue with 2.7 miles of bike lanes and a host of pedestrian-friendly design features. We called it a “rare win for bikes over cars and parking.” We spoke too soon. City transportation officials announced last week that the plans for the bike lanes have been removed from the project. In a hearing with the DC Council, the city’s acting DOT Director Sharon Kershbaum said any Connecticut Avenue reconfiguration, “will not include a bike lane,” and that what was originally intended to be a “safety ..read more

(Source: California YIMBY.) The Strong Towns approach to housing has some obvious tension with NIMBYs, but what about the YIMBY movement? That’s the topic for discussion on the table for today’s episode of the Strong Towns Podcast, because while our approach has more in common with the YIMBY (“Yes in My Backyard”) crowd than differences, there are some nuances that are worth addressing. And if you want to take a serious deep dive into the Strong Towns approach to housing, then you’ll be glad to know that Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis is going to be ..read more

A lot of people have been sharing a version of this tweet, some of them (financial people) focusing on the home price appreciation and others (housing advocates) focusing on the lack of housing inventory. The CPI report underscores how crazy the housing market is right now. In "normal" times, rising rates would temper home sales & prices. But given the dearth of inventory (white line), decent homes that do come to market are scooped up ASAP, helping push prices higher (blue line) pic.twitter.com/4cSaGVrbt1 — Robert Burgess (@BobOnMarkets) April 10, 2024 The insight in this twee ..read more

With the parking mandate in place, Lawrence Hall sat empty and unused. A 6,000-square-foot building at 4609 Butler St. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has lived many lives since its construction in 1890. Local resident Brett Minarik told the Pittsburgh City Paper that at one point it was a theater, then it became an auto shop in the 1940s, after which it was taken over by a construction business that later used it as storage. It had been standing vacant for years when Minarik began taking the “for sale” sign seriously. He, his wife Phoebe Fraser and their friend Adam Harvey decided to ..read more

Lake Street runs through downtown Chisholm, MN, and is up for renovation soon. Understanding the real costs and long-term liabilities of our infrastructure is essential for the long-term prosperity of our places. Unfortunately, this detail is often overlooked in our decision-making process. Our cities and towns get stuck repeating a growth and development pattern we can no longer afford.  If we want to do something about it, we have to shift the conversation by asking different questions.  Chisholm is a small, 5,000-person community in Central Minnesota with active citizens invested ..read more

Scene of a collision on Henderson Highway. It was a perfect blue-sky day, and before 8 a.m., at least two people’s days were already ruined. An hour earlier, I’d been walking with my son toward the bus stop on Henderson Highway — a stroad that bisects our Winnipeg neighborhood of Elmwood — when we saw a flash of black whiz by and then heard a terrible, loud bang. A few steps farther down the road, we realized we’d narrowly missed witnessing a collision. Two vehicles were stopped, their four-way flashers on, while drivers paced nearby on their phones. In the low dawn light, I couldn’t see ..read more

Since the 1970s, the number of cars on I-70 between Denver and its surrounding resorts have jumped more than 500%. Coloradans and frequent visitors know that, in order to reach the mountains during the gridlock of ski season, you must leave as early as 3 or 4 a.m. in the morning. Writer Gloria Liu decided to investigate this chaos by jumping directly into the traffic and interviewing the people stuck in it, and the article she penned about her adventure is up for discussion on this week’s episode of Upzoned. Can I-70 be fixed? And what do famous recreational arterials like I-70 reveal about o ..read more