Edina Neighbors for Affordable Housing

A group of parents who have adlt children with disabilities and mental health challenges has organized a forum titled, “Housing Dilemma for Adults with Serious Mental Illness: What Happens After Parents are Gone?” to be held at Edina City Hall, 4801 2. 50 th St., on Wednesday, Sept. 6, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. The forum is sponsored by NAMI Minnesota and the League of Women Voters.

A unique mix of environmentalism and individualism helped this rural state build a coalition around pro-housing bills.

Montgomery County, Md., like many places, has an affordable housing crisis. So it started acting like a benevolent real estate investor.

Higher housing prices put the state at risk of losing a competitive edge.

Twin Cities faith communities are hoping to help curb homelessness by building tiny houses on their land. They will get help from a new state law next year requiring municipalities to approve such “sacred communities” that meet a list of rules.

Monthly asking prices shot up by 15 percent between 2020 and 2022, marking the fastest run-up in rents in nearly a century. But now costs are calming down.

Developers say they need more public funding than what cities alone can offer to subsidize housing for people with lower incomes, especially those making less than 30% of the area median income.

The median home price has risen to $413,800, the second-highest price ever, even as existing-home sales decline. Rental prices have risen 26 percent since Feb. 2020.

The White House announced new efforts to improve transparency in the rental market, to ensure renters are told the total cost of fees added to monthly rent costs.

One-quarter of homes sold in 2021 were purchased by outside investors, and many believe this has intensified the affordability crisis via higher rents, lower rates of individual homeownership and less affordable neighborhoods.

The state of Massachusetts launched the Massachusetts Community Climate Bank in an effort to create more climate-friendly, affordable housing.

Improving housing will positively impact health care organizations because there are high costs associated with patients who frequently come into the emergency room.

So many developments have been sidetracked or delayed that some experts expect a “production cliff” to hit in a year or so, meaning fewer new homes coming onto the market.

NIMBYs come in a variety of forms, but the most confounding are those who call themselves progressive yet abuse laws conceived to protect the environment in order to block desperately needed housing, driving up costs and fueling homelessness.

Soaring real estate markets have created a worldwide housing crisis. What can we learn from a city that has largely avoided it?