Tag: affordable housing
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Making Deeds Affordable: State Lawmakers Bring a Breath of Fresh Air
People need homes. Solutions are possible. Where are the politicians and what are they doing — or not doing? We’ve already highlighted the federal ROAD to Housing Act of 2025. We’re watching Congress to see how that proceeds in a turbulent year. With a government shutdown casting its chaotic shadow of confusion and delays, many…
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House-Proud: New Research Links Homeownership to Mental Wellness
More than two in every 10 adults in the United States live with mental illnesses. More than 8% of our population is dealing with a major depressive disorder. Since the pandemic took hold, mental health issues have shown a trend upward. What does a deed (or the lack of one) have to do with this?…
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Buy Safely. Learn From Others. Anticipate Pitfalls in Manufactured Home Deals.
At Royal Village, a manufactured home community in Toledo, Matthew Caton fought hard for his rights. Matthew was among a number of residents who lingered in a rent-to-own status. They’d been promised their titles 180 days after they bought in. But they’d been waiting more than a year when they heard they’d finally receive their…
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Time to Make Financing a Manufactured Home Easier. Meanwhile, What a Difference Holding the Deed Makes!
Manufactured housing — and this includes mobile homes — make up a key segment of financially accessible housing. Today, 18 million people have roofs overhead thanks to manufactured homes. Most own them. Most are deed holders who took out mortgages from banks or credit unions. But it wasn’t easy for them. Some applied for regular…
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Turning a Hotel Into Homes for Seniors, Vets in Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County, Florida is about to lose 1,000 affordable units over the coming five years. Why? Agreements with developers established restrictions that reserved affordable units for 15 to 30 years. Those restrictions are about to expire. This comes at a time when Palm Beach County will need nearly 81,000 new affordable housing units to…
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FHA Layoffs? Here’s What Home Buyers Want to Know
A powerhouse of the U.S. housing market seems at the brink of a major staff cut. HUD is the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It oversees the country’s FHA-backed loans. And it’s in for some turbulence.
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“I Never Thought I Would Own a House…” A Community Trust in Vermont Takes on the Housing Shortage
Too many homes sit empty in towns where working people need them. In a housing affordability crisis, this has to change. In Vermont, a local nonprofit is stepping up. Local Deeds is an initiative that helps people make down payments on homes. Specifically, working people. A deed restriction ensures that someone in the home has…
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These are the states where you can get the largest home for your money, according to new study
Home sweet (and spacious) home: New study reveals where buyers can get the best deals per square foot In recent years, homes have been shrinking as the housing market tightens. A limited supply of available homes, combined with sky-high demand, has driven prices to levels many would call out of reach. However, not all states…
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Frugal But Fun: An Origami Home, Anyone?
Cost has always been a big reason to pick a compact home. Today, though, less really is more. New generations of home buyers seek out small homes for a range of reasons — like a preference for uncluttered minimalism. Or a goal of reducing their footprint on nature. Appropriately designed small homes can be easier…
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Momentum Builds: A New Wave of Pressure on States to Build Affordable Homes
Looking to acquire the deed to a home? A new federal administration could factor into the amount you’ll need to pay. For one thing, the incoming administration is talking about tariffs that would raise the cost of materials and construction work. On the other hand, actual housing policy falls to the states. Under their…
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Gen Z Rising: Younger Buyers’ Strategies in the Housing Market
Twentysomethings acquiring deeds? It’s a thing. But in this market, how are Gen Zers pulling it off? According to the National Association of REALTORS®, Gen Z now holds 3% of U.S. home deeds. And the numbers also suggest that many young buyers had to be awfully scrappy to get these deeds.
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New Jersey Enacts a Raft of Reforms Impacting Deed Holders
To take action on the racial wealth gap, New Jersey’s lieutenant governor Tahesha Way signed an update to the Real Estate Appraisal Act, explicitly meant to stop race-based bias from influencing appraisals. As our readers know, appraisals often occur when a home seller transfers a deed to a home buyer. A 2022 study from the…
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Workforce Deed Restrictions: How Are They Monitored?
With housing costs up (and wages not so much), some cities need to give working people a hand. As financial barriers to homeownership continue to frustrate so many wage earners, workforce housing is one way to make deeds attainable. It’s for households earning too much to qualify for standard government subsidies, but who can’t pay…
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Real Estate, Meet the Bots. Not Everyone’s Amused.
Digs, a purveyor of software for home builders and managers, is doing what many companies are doing these days. It’s revving up the artificial intelligence (AI) tools on its platform. With Digs, home builders and deed holders collaborate and store information. They make digital twins to simulate touring or working in the actual homes. Builders,…
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NIMBY or YIMBY? Here’s Where People Stand on Rezoning for More Housing.
The United States sorely needs to make homes affordable for more people. Millions of households are financially fenced out from acquiring their own deeds. Local and state policy makers are under pressure to allow higher density in residential neighborhoods, in order to ease the housing shortage that takes a particular toll on working people,…
