Affordability

Content about affordable living

Sprawl repair prototypes

As communities seek to fix broken real estate economies, new building prototypes that can both repair damaged urban fabric and garner financing are needed.

Posted by Robert Steuteville on 31 Jan 2012

Alley houses: an emerging trend faces a cost test

Vancouver, British Columbia, could eventually have up to 60,000 small dwellings along lanes — if people can afford $300 a square foot.

Posted by Robert Steuteville on 31 Jan 2012

Protecting small businesses from suburban redevelopment

A county executive in Maryland says he doesn't want redevelopment to hurt small businesses as it did in Silver Spring.

Public transit, gaining riders, needs help

Ridership has risen 31 percent since the mid-1990s—meriting more government support, not less.

Live smaller, work closer, shed excess

ULI's forecast of the next few years envisions a combination of scarcity and density that could should be good news for well-ordered urban places.

Posted by Philip Langdon on 27 Dec 2011

The ins and outs of laneway houses

More than 400 small houses have been built along Vancouver's alleys since 2009. Here's a look at their economics.

As funds vanish, New England looks at how to pursue sustainability

Boosting the proportion of development along transit networks is one goal of smart growth advocates in the region.

Posted by Philip Langdon on 05 Dec 2011

Suburban redevelopment versus 'family feel'

New mixed-use development is expected to make Wheaton, Maryland, look better, but local people worry about the losses.

Glimmers of hope in Detroit

TechTown, in the Woodward Avenue corridor, has amassed 250 businesses, and the owner of Quicken Loans has moved another 2,000 employee into the Motor City.

South Bronx Rising

This excellent video shows how new urbanist/progressive planning ideas have permeated the redevelopment of the South Bronx, the poster child for urban decay in the last quarter of the 20th Century.