Affordable Housing Institute : US

How can we deliver long-term homeownership affordability in continually urbanizing and appreciating markets?  One approach involves capturing land for long-term affordability use via community land trusts, as illustrated by this recent story from the Portland Oregonian:

 
Stacey Dolezal tiptoes behind her Realtor through a tiny two-bedroom house in Overland Park, testing the floor with her feet.  […]

“How long is your commute?”
 

There goes 25% of my budget, and 20% of my waking day.
Isn’t that always the question you ask a new acquaintance after discovering where he or she lives? 
 
At some instinctive level, we all know that house prices and commute times are reverse-correlated: the price of a short commute is a […]

O God, “give me chastity, but not yet,” Saint Augustine is reputed to have prayed, and in the latest (albeit anticipated) development in the ongoing Fannie Mae saga, the company has sued its former auditors for, in effect, not stopping its own misbehavior. 
 

“Please stop me from smoothing earnings … but not yet!”
 
As the Washington […]

[Continued from yesterday’s Part 1.]
 
In much the manner of (say) Henry VIII, whose court followed him whither he went, Mayor Tom Menino has boldly proposed moving City Hall to South Boston and reselling the soon-to-be-vacated plaza for a better, more economic use. 
 

Where I go, the court goes too!
 
The move makes total sense: “Great idea!” […]

No one can fault Boston Mayor Tom Menino for thinking small — when I read this Boston Globe story, I had two reactions totaling four words:

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, saying he wants to make a statement that will lead Boston into the future, announced he intends to build an “architecturally magnificent” City Hall on […]