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☆ Extreme heat takes toll on outdoor workers
▼ + stars: | 2024-06-21 | by ( Alicia Wallace | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

There’s little to no escape from sweltering temperatures for construction workers like Eva Marroquin, who cleans work sites in Austin, Texas, and has worked in the industry for 17 years. Since 2010, she’s worked closely with the Workers Defense Project, an organization that advocates for protections for low-wage, immigrant workers in the Texas construction industry. Slowing down small businessesIt’s barely just now summer, and heatwaves are already slowing down small businesses, according to Homebase, which provides payroll software to more than 100,000 small businesses, covering 2 million hourly workers. “I think anything that impacts small businesses is affecting the economy as a whole,” he said, noting how small businesses account for half the jobs in the country. For herself, the high heat is more of an inconvenience; the car’s hotter and she just needs to pack some extra water.

Persons: Eva Marroquin, ” Marroquin, Christine Bolaños, she’s, Chris Lafakis, ”, Joshua, Gina Ferazzi, Gregory P, Casey, Jenny Schuetz, Brian Snyder, aren’t, “, John Waldmann, They’re, Katie Parent, Joseph Prezioso, Greer, Denise Greer Jamerson, Norman, Greer Jamerson, you’ve, ‘, “ It’s, it’s, Tamara Lovewell, café, panini, Tamara Lovewell “, Lovewell Organizations: CNN, Capitol, Workers Defense Project, Moody’s, Federal Reserve Bank of San, Williams College, Triple, Los Angeles Times, Environmental Protection Agency, Brookings Metro, Reuters, University of California, Stanford University, Getty, National Weather Service, Ruska Coffee Company Locations: Austin , Texas, Washington ,, Texas, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Massachusetts, Joshua Tree , California, Boston, Greater Boston, AFP, Princeton , Indiana, , Maine, United States, Caribou .

☆ Low-income Americans wait years to get housing vouchers that are often impossible to use. Fixing the system could mean more funding and less red tape.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-18 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

The federal Housing Choice Voucher Program, also known as Section 8, is also the biggest, aiding about 5 million people in 2.3 million households. While it's illegal in some places to discriminate against voucher holders, the practice isn't outlawed everywhere. Fully funding housing vouchers would mean many more housing-insecure and unhoused people would get help. Related storiesIn its budget for fiscal year 2025, the Biden administration requested a $2.5 billion increase for voucher funding over 2023 levels. Researchers at the Department of Housing and Urban Development have proposed piloting a direct cash transfer program for rent as an alternative to housing vouchers.

Persons: Will Fischer, Biden, Jenny Schuetz, isn't, Lindsey Nicholson, Michael Stegman, Stegman, Tara Radosevich, Fischer, Schuetz Organizations: Service, Business, of Housing, Urban Development, Budget, Harvard, The New York Times, Republicans, Brookings Institute, Getty, Urban Institute, HUD, Washington State, Department of Housing Locations: —, Los Angeles, Fort Worth, Philadelphia, Iowa, Long Island City, Queens, Oregon

☆ Empty-Nest Baby Boomers Won't Sell 3-Bedroom Homes Millennials Need
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-23 | by ( Eliza Relman | Jennifer Sor | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

As people age, they need homes that are more accessible and easier to maintain. Large homes often have multiple floors, yards, and other features that make them trickier to navigate for older people. AdvertisementSchuetz says there's not a dearth of large homes in the US. Instead, there's really just a mismatch between large homes and occupants who don't need them. But many more family-sized apartments and other homes will need to be built to make up for the lack of large homes on the market.

Persons: —, Jenny Schuetz, Redfin, Schuetz, Daryl Fairweather, Redfin's, I've, Fairweather, it's, there's Organizations: Service, Business, Brookings Institution

☆ The sure-fire way to save America’s cities? Do what Tokyo does.
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-04 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

But affordability isn't an issue in the world's biggest city, Tokyo. In collectivist Japan, housing policy is designed to benefit the most people possible. Earthquakes and small homesAnother feature of the Japanese housing market is purely situational: The country is a hotspot for earthquakes. Could the US import Japanese housing policy? Japan's housing policy "is now quite well understood" among American housing advocates and scholars, he says, "whereas it was not even three years ago."

Persons: metropolises, Eric Adams, Alan Durning, Durning, Jiro Yoshida, NIMBYism, Jenny Schuetz, Yoshida, Schuetz, André Sorensen, there's, Sorensen, Nolan Gray, Impermanence, Gray, tradeoffs, Eliza Relman Organizations: US, America it's, New York City, Sightline, Pennsylvania State University, Brookings Institution, University of Toronto, Earthquakes Locations: Los Angeles, Miami, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, it's, America, Paris, Japan, inequity, Montana, California, United States, Vienna, Amsterdam, California , Oregon, Washington

☆ YIMBY Movement Is Winning: Build More Houses, Lower Home Prices, Rents
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Eliza Relman | Kelsey Neubauer | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The adherents of the "Yes In My Backyard," or YIMBY, movement believe that America's housing crisis comes down to the fundamental tension between supply and demand. Today, nearly 75% of residentially-zoned land in the US is restricted to single-family housing — detached homes designed for one family. Folks are like, 'Oh, we're in a housing crisis for the very first time. Ground zero for the modern YIMBY movement was California, where sky-high home prices forced people to reconsider their attitudes toward development. The city didn't allow new multiunit buildings to be taller or wider than the single-family homes they replaced, making construction less financially attractive to developers.

Persons: Nolan Gray, YIMBYism, Sonja Trauss, Trauss, YIMBYs, NIMBYs, Gray, I'm, —, Bill, They've, Tayfun Coskun, Muhammad Alameldin, Emily Hamilton, We're unwinding, Jenny Schuetz, Greg Gianforte, California YIMBY, Republican Sen, Todd Young, Democratic Sen, Brian Schatz, Eliza Relman, Kelsey Neubauer Organizations: San, San Francisco Bay Area, Urban Institute, Twitter, of Regional Planning, Public, Cato Institute, University of California, Berkeley Terner Center, Housing, George Mason University, Conservative, Brookings Institute, Republican, Todd Young of Indiana, Democratic, Hawaii Locations: California, San Francisco Bay, San Francisco, I'm, Los Angeles County, Florida, Utah, Minneapolis, Oregon, Austin, Dallas, Seattle, Portland , Oregon, Denver, New York, Texas, YIMBYism, We're, Bozeman, Montana, Miami

☆ Middle class Americans are moving straight into fire and drought because they can't afford to live in the cities that are safer from climate change
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Rising housing costs have helped push Americans into parts of the country more vulnerable to climate change. The trend shows how the burden of climate change is falling disproportionately on less affluent people. Rather than leaving areas at high risk of natural disasters and other climate issues, more Americans are moving into them. But if lower-risk cities continue to price people out, the burden of climate change will fall even more disproportionately on less affluent communities. A recent Brookings Institution report recommended several ways that policymakers can encourage Americans to seek climate safety.

Persons: Hurricane Harvey, Freddie Mac, Rich, homebuyers, Jenny Schuetz, Julia Gill Organizations: Service, Brookings, Federal Housing Finance Agency Locations: New York, San Francisco, Southern, Florida, Houston, West, Bend , Oregon

☆ The genius plan that could bring down skyrocketing home prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Not only did this help to slow down skyrocketing housing costs, it inspired a bipartisan, nationwide expansion of the policy. Home prices in Auckland, New Zealand's biggest city, doubled between 2009 and 2016 and prices across the rest of the country followed close behind. "A typical New Zealand city looks a lot like a typical US city," Gray said. There are three models of housing construction in US cities right now, Gray said. "In terms of an overall objective, I think bringing down house prices to construction costs is an ultimate sign of housing abundance."

Persons: Upzoning, Jenny Schuetz, Matthew Maltman, who's, Ryan Greenaway, Guo Lei, Maltman, There's, Auckland's upzoning, Vicki Been, Bill de Blasio, Schuetz, Nolan Gray, Gray, let's, Brett Coomer, that's, Allison Zaucha, Freemark, we're, Emily Hamilton, Eliza Relman Organizations: Brookings Institute, Auckland, Economic, University of Auckland, New, National Party, Housing, Economic Development, New Zealand, California YIMBY, Urban Institute, Houston, Montana Republicans, George Mason University Locations: New Zealand, Auckland, Australian, Zealand, Auckland , New, New Zealand's, New York, Europe, California, Zealanders, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Houston, Atlanta, Denver, Seattle, Washington, Portland , Oregon, Montana, California . Utah, Minneapolis, New York City

☆ Austin is copying Houston's playbook for making housing more affordable
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-06 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Demand for housing in Austin, Texas has outstripped even its relatively rapid housing production. Austin's upzoning measures are designed to incentivize "gentle density" — also known as infill housing or missing-middle housing. And even if you don't care about housing policy, you are feeling this in a very intimate way." Aerial view of neighborhood outside of Austin Texas. Most recently, Dallas city Council member Chad West is leading the charge to consider cutting minimum lot sizes in his city.

Persons: Austin, Jenny Schuetz, They've, Schuetz, Emily Hamilton, Nicole Nabulsi Nosek, Greg Anderson, there's, Joe Sohm, Anderson, Nosek, Chad West Organizations: Service, Apple, Brookings Institute, George Mason University, Reasonable, Austin Habitat, Humanity, Chad Locations: Austin , Texas, Texas, Wall, Silicon, Austin, Houston, Austin Texas, California, Dallas

☆ Why it's so hard to build homes in your neighborhood
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-05 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +12 min

Single-family homes in Arlington, Massachusetts. Around 75% of residential land in the United States is zoned for single-family homes only. This has had the effect of encouraging ever-larger single-family homes and limiting housing options, like smaller houses. “You can’t just do it all with zoning reform,” Walla Walla City Manager Elizabeth Chamberlain told CNN. The second wave of single-family zoning laws spread during the 1970s, historians say, and the policies became more restrictive.

Persons: Suzanne Kreiter, ”, Jenny Schuetz, “, —, Ben McCanna, Joe Biden’s, Richard Kahlenberg, Kathy Hochul’s, Elizabeth Chamberlain, “ It’s, Nancy Kaye, William Fischel, Fischel, Carlos Avila Gonzalez, Yonah Freemark, we’re, ” Freemark Organizations: New, New York CNN, Boston Globe, Brookings Metro, Republicans, Portland Press Herald, Getty Images, ”, CNN, Homes, “, Dartmouth University, Homeowners, San Francisco Chronicle, AP, Pew Charitable Locations: New York, Arlington , Massachusetts, United States, “, Maine, Getty Images Minneapolis, Arlington , Gainesville, Charlotte, Walla Walla , Washington, Oregon , California, Washington , Montana, Connecticut , Arizona, ” Walla Walla City, Cities, Louisville , Kentucky, Flushing , Queens, America, San Francisco, Los Angeles , New York City, Seattle, Chicago , Philadelphia, Portland, Washington, Walnut Creek , California, Minneapolis, Portland , New Rochelle , New York, , Virginia, Towns, Walla, Walla Walla

☆ America’s housing dream is broken
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

New York CNN Business —A little over a decade ago, the dominant narrative about the housing market was that Millennials simply weren’t buying. As that 2020 housing boom begins to go bust, those who managed to close on a home in the crush of competition fed by rock-bottom mortgage rates should count themselves extremely lucky. “And this year were facing increasing home prices while mortgage rates are also climbing.”Oh yeah, one other thing: In addition to mortgage rates going up, home prices also shot up, with the median peaking at $413,800 in June. As affordability reaches crisis levels, now is a good time for federal and local governments to rethink the way we frame the American Dream. Another strong data point on jobs will only reassure the Fed that the labor market can withstand more rate hikes.

☆ Conservatives love to blame America's housing crisis on Democrats. An economist explains the true reason behind it and why it extends beyond political parties.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Paul Constant | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

He recently spoke with economist and author Jenny Schuetz about the housing crisis. Pundits love to blame permissive social policies for the disrepair that they highlight, but the truth is that rural America — including many red areas — is facing the same problems of skyrocketing crime, housing costs, and homelessness. Schuetz said that a true solution to our housing crisis requires the passage of policy solutions at the federal, state, and local level. An overly regulated market and a broken tax codeBringing housing costs down and home supply up starts with stripping power from zoning boards. When the majority of homeowners and homebuyers treat housing as the foundation of their wealth, as opposed to one of the most basic human needs, the housing market behaves more like an investment market.

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