Converting a former newspaper building to affordable apartments took a developer’s passion and government assistance to come together
Natalie Brophy · Appleton Post-Crescent · 14 June 2021
A building on the National Register of Historic Places is being converted into affordable apartments in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Homebuyers increasingly willing to pay above asking price
Alex Veiga · StarTribune · 27 May 2021
Home prices have rocketed to new highs and many homes are selling for more than their appraised value.
North Minneapolis renters wage a fight with private equity landlords
Susan Du and Jeff Hargarten · StarTribune · 29 May 2021
Previously affordable homes have been bought up by private equity. Nationwide, millions of families rent from real estate investment trusts or private equity firms. Critics accuse the institutional investors-turned-landlords of trying to maximize profits through relentless rent hikes while neglecting the costly upkeep of old homes.
New data tool estimates 53,000 households in Minnesota behind on rent
Peter Callaghan · MinnPost · 10 May 2021
Of Minnesota households behind on rent, 60 percent are people of color, 43 percent report being unemployed, 75 percent earn less than $50,000 a year and 71 percent report having lost income during the pandemic.
For affordable housing, construction needs modernization
James Schmitz Jr. · StarTribune · 1 May 2021
The fundamental reason for the increasing cost of housing (relative to other goods) is that the construction sector employs an outdated and inefficient technology.
The ‘New Redlining’ Is Deciding Who Lives in Your Neighborhood
Richard D. Kahlenberg · New York Times · 19 April 2021
Economically discriminatory zoning policies — which say that you are not welcome in a community unless you can afford a single-family home, sometimes on a large plot of land — are not part of a distant, disgraceful past. In most American cities, zoning laws prohibit the construction of relatively affordable homes — duplexes, triplexes, quads and larger multifamily units — on three-quarters of residential land.
In effort to preserve affordable houses, Edina program takes aim at teardowns
Jim Buchta · StarTribune · 17 April 2021
With moderately priced houses on the verge of extinction, Edina’s housing authority earlier this year sent thousands of unsolicited offers to owners of the most affordable houses in the city encouraging them to sell to a local nonprofit that then resells houses to working-class families for significantly less than they might otherwise pay.
‘She Wants Well-Qualified People’: 88 Landlords Accused of Housing Bias
Matthew Haag · New York Times · 15 March 2021
A lawsuit by a watchdog group claims that its undercover investigation found widespread bias against tenants receiving federal housing assistance.
Your Home’s Value Is Based on Racism
Dorothy A. Brown · New York Times · 20 March 2021
Black Americans are often unable to build wealth from homeownership in the same way their white peers are, in large part because home prices are generally set by the people who make up the majority of buyers: white Americans.
Is an Algorithm Less Racist Than a Loan Officer?
Jennifer Miller · New York Times · 18 September 2020
Digital mortgage platforms have the potential to reduce discrimination. But automated systems provide rich opportunities to perpetuate bias, too.