August 28: What we’re reading
Some articles we found interesting this week:
1. Wake County announced a program offering incentives to landlords to increase housing affordability, including cash payments to encourage landlords to accept housing vouchers.
2. There are signs that the overheated housing market may be cooling, including here in Raleigh.
Axios Raleigh: House hunters are getting a little relief
3. Wake County median real estate sale price dropped $4,000 in July.
Wake County: July 2022 Median Price Wake County Real Estate Drops
4. More proposed infill, more controversy in Raleigh. The friction between existing single-family neighborhoods and proposals for infill density is not going away. As a community, we must get comfortable with regulatory reforms that allow neighborhoods to change and evolve over time. It is the only way for Raleigh to grow in ways that welcome residents across the racial and socioeconomic spectrum.
WRAL: Historic neighborhood fights back against rezoning
5. This story is about a nonprofit that buys properties before investors get to them and then sell them to people in need of affordable housing.
6. San Antonio grapples with ways to encourage city officials and builders to start thinking about displacement on the front end, not the back end of development.
San Antonio Report: San Antonio grapples with ways to fund housing that don’t displace residents
7. Raleigh’s downtown is showing resilience and recovery according to the most recent Downtown Raleigh Alliance 2nd Quarter Report.
If you have a little more time to delve into housing affordability and equity issues, we suggest these reports and videos:
1. We definitely recommend this report and the accompanying panel discussion. “Up for Growth” produced a report exploring how the underproduction of housing is contributing to the housing affordability crisis and strategies for increasing supply.
Up for Growth: Housing Underproduction in the US
This panel discussion includes remarks by Nolan Gray and Jenny Shuetz, both experts in land use and housing regulatory reform. Watch here.
2. Here’s another panel discussion sponsored by Shelterforce addressing historic barriers to Black homeownership and potential solutions, including social impact investing.
Shelterforce: Developing Radical Goals for Black Homeownership: An NCRC Panel Discussion
3. Urban Land Institute has a good report on embedding racial equity in real estate development.
Urban Land Institute: 10 Principles for Embedding Racial Equity in Real Estate Development
4. ULI also has a useful report on home attainability.
Urban Land Institute: 2022 Terwilliger Center Home Attainability Index