REFinBlog

Editor: David Reiss
Brooklyn Law School

February 21, 2018

Zoning and Housing Affordability

By David Reiss

Vanessa Brown Calder has posted Zoning, Land-Use Planning, and Housing Affordability to SSRN. It opens, Local zoning and land-use regulations have increased substantially over the decades. These constraints on land development within cities and suburbs aim to achieve various safety, … Continue reading

February 13, 2018

Trump’s War on HUD

By David Reiss

President Trump’s budget for fiscal year 2019 offers these highlights for the Department of Housing and Urban Development: The Budget reflects the President’s commitment to fiscal responsibility by reforming programs to encourage the dignity of work and self-sufficiency while supporting … Continue reading

February 9, 2018

Micro Apartments and The Housing Crisis

By David Reiss

The NYU Furman Center has posted 21st Century SROs: Can Small Housing Units Help Meet the Need for Affordable Housing in New York City? The policy brief opens, Throughout much of the last century, single-room occupancy (SRO) housing was a commonly … Continue reading

February 8, 2018

Loan Mods Amidst Rising Interest Rates

By David Reiss

The Urban Institute’s Laurie Goodman et al. have posted Government Loan Modifications: What Happens When Interest Rates Rise?. This brief is another product of the newly formed Mortgage Servicing Collaborative. This brief examines the current loan modification product suite for … Continue reading

January 22, 2018

The Case for More Federal Housing Assistance

By David Reiss

  Corianne Payton Scally et al. of the Urban Institute have posted a Research Report, The Case for More, Not Less: Shortfalls in Federal Housing Assistance and Gaps in Evidence for Proposed Policy Changes. The Executive Summary opens, Federal housing … Continue reading

November 21, 2017

Housing Problems and Federal Assistance

By David Reiss

The Urban Institute’s G. Thomas Kingsley has posted a brief, Trends in Housing Problems and Federal Housing Assistance. It opens, In the 1930s, many American families lived in seriously deficient housing. To address that challenge, the federal government began building subsidized housing, … Continue reading

November 14, 2017

The Future of Public Housing

By David Reiss

The Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley has posted Lessons for the Future of Public Housing: Assessing the Early Implementation of the Rental Assistance Demonstration Program. Housing policy analysts have bemoaned the chronic underfunding of public housing for decades … Continue reading