Ownership

Attention Denizens of Legendary Dogpatch, USA! Which of America's Biggest and Best Cities might entice you to buy in to the American Home Ownership Dream? If you are actually American,...

It was in a Toronto Fitness Centre locker room that a local University prof spilled the ugly beans to Affordablehousingaction.org about citizen self-protective(?) behaviour. "Immigrants are only pro-immigration until they...

The decline of United Kingdom social housing? How best to inspire a reader on the subject? As an historical treatise, step by stumble through a succession of right...

Would you take on one of the world's most powerful mayors of one of the world's most powerful city councils, while it played ball with powerful building developers dead...

It seems there's a price for hogging the 'housing ladder.' Countries such as Canada, the United States, Australia and New Zealand have received decades of political support for their...

"Order for overnight delivery," says a contemporary on-line shopping site. It's a popular way to make purchases these days. It's also a revival, at least in the United States. One...

If you've been following our posts, you'll know that we've behaved a little like breathless enthusiasts about an emerging activist housing philosophy. North America is seeing currently fashionable proposals...

Then there's the brother-in-law, needing to replace an old porch door. Alas, it's old enough to be a non-standard size and so needs to be custom-ordered, skyrocketing the cost....

The financialization of housing is raising the cost of human shelter worldwide, leading to similar problems in many countries, with growing populations being priced out of housing altogether and...

When it comes to adding housing that will be deeply affordable housing and permanent, community land trusts are in a good position to step up. When a community land...

Today's first postTry: Ontario's Government: Fix Supply To End The Housing Crisis. Have They Backed The Winning Horse? talked about plans to unlock housing supply in Ontario. It explores...

The problem is obvious. The tentacles of profit-earning capitalism are enmeshed in the buying and selling of homes. These days, everyone wants to buy and sell housing. That includes...

With the advent of the 50 year housing mortgage in the United Kingdom, housing wealth can be 'rented' from a bank or mortgage company, costing for many a lifetime...

The United Way of Greater Toronto has recently issued a report called Building Inclusive Communities: Learning from Programs and Policies that Work. Much of Canada's population growth in the...

Gregory Ain wanted to build social housing in Los Angeles. During a lengthy, illustrious career he won a Guggenheim grant to research small, inexpensive, single family homes. Ultimately, the...

Putting 'celebrating' and 'stalling housing prices' in the same phrase will probably ensure that people read at least a few pages of Generation Squeeze's new report: Celebrating Stalling Prices...

AAHA! Fooled us with that name, didn't they? We were expecting a rabbit pulled from a hat and have instead latched on to a group of Canadian architects, designers and...

The connection between housing and health came late to the table when researchers began studying the social determinants of healthTry: Connecting The Housing And Health Dots . Researchers have...

The article linked below actually sets out with a more ambitious agenda than 'a collection of thoughts.' It considers Why the rental housing market is so deeply broken. As...

Liz Truss is one of the candidates to become the next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. She really doesn't like housing targetsAs posted on Twitter: Liz Truss: ‘I’ll...

The Leeds Building SocietyBuilding societies are member-owned financial institutions. When you make a deposit with the Building Society, you become a member. They offer banking and related financial services,...

Many more U.S. folks live in mobile homes ("manufactured homes" if you want to be snobbish about them) than receive federal housing assistance (e.g. public housing and housing choice...

Is ever-build, free-market, middle-class housing the sacred cow of modern western civilization? Follow housing news in a variety of nations and expect to be told what a large and...

With new 'social' housing prayers currently a-murmur across America, we report, with great regret, that an important patron saint of that movement is, if far from dead, doing poorly. That...

Pogo? Revered by a generation in North America, that comic book anti-hero some 50 years ago predicted the alleged culprit causing the current United Kingdom housing affordability crisis — at...

Here's an idea sprung from the cramped (relatively) European countryside that might perfectly suit the wide-open spaces in countries such as the USA, Argentina, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Why...

The UK's under-siege Prime Minister Boris Johnson is currently attempting to polish his extremely grubby conservative credentials by expanding England's Right To Buy program to residents of the region's...

Leftie, bleeding heart publications such as ourselves just know that the globe's problems, like homelessness, arise from rampant, unrepentant financializers who profit on the backs of the little guys. Well,...

We've been worried about Habitat for Humanity. Without doubt it has long been recognized as a credible housing charity for hands-on delivery of truly affordable housing. Habitat has over the...

Winning a lottery is undeniably an opportunity. The sudden change in circumstances comes with its own consequences, not all of them good. As well, most people don't win lotteries....

The San Francisco Community Land Trust recently purchased a 40 unit apartment building, which will operate as a housing co-operative providing permanently affordable housing. The purchase is significant because it...

What if Canadian homeowners had suffered the same calamities of the 2008 mortgage meltdown as Americans? Many homeowners in other nations also suffered. Canada largely crested the waves of...

Much of the world is mightily taken with Singapore's victory in creating a workable social housing scheme with home ownership as its objective. It has been so fulfilling that...

Current housing policy frameworks in many westernized countries resemble hospitals stocked exclusively with multi-coloured bandaids. Last week's solution is now this week's problem? Rip off the old plaster. Stick...

Who can afford affordable housing? KiwibuildTry: New Zealand’s Kiwibuild ‘Affordable’ Housing Stumbles Out Of The Starting Gate was initiated in New Zealand as an ambitious affordable housing program. It came...

A lengthy article from Australia's ABC News poses the question asked in the title above. Can rental housing deliver both a happy, fulfilling lifestyle and housing security? Surely a national...

A news item about rising housing prices from Australia caught our eye. The reporter, Stephen Long, begins with a discussion of the rise in value of a home owned...

Mortgage calculators abound for computing the cost of that so-called "National Dream": home ownership. For example, choose a 3% mortgage rate. Inherit, beg, borrow, steal, or work at a...

In the grand scheme of lower housing prices, Community Land Trusts (CLTs) have in America largely been exotic animals worthy of further study, rather than tried and true pack...

Here are two visions of public housing: An attractive, secure, affordable lifelong home for "workers," first promoted in the U.S. at the dawn of American public housing by the...

There are some perennially familiar annual record breakers: World's most expensive city in which to live: Hong Kong World's most crowded city in which to live: Hong Kong . . ....

News from Reuters appeared recently about low cost housing co-operatives in Thailand, which have been supported by the Thai government since 2003. As a consequence of climate change, more and...

Since the world is largely full of losers, with mere handfuls of winners (think Olympics) chances are as you read this that, although you do not carry a card...

A story from Next City reports on two pieces of legislation recently passed in California. They are intended to assist community based non-profit agencies buy housing. The first requires...

Shelterforce, which supports community development initiatives across the United States, is running a series about community land trusts. The series includes an entry level article that explains what community land...

The Urban Institute has just released Who Owns The Twin Cities, which analyses residential ownership patterns in Minnesota's Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul). These communities have the largest...

One in three New Zealand councils are looking to pry elusive rent subsidies dollars from the federal government in order to build social housing. The demand for social (or...

The City of Vancouver, BC has, as a responsible landlord, found itself going head to head with the authority tasked with extracting the most profitable solutions for the development...

Lurking in the depths of conservative thought, the idea of a meritocracy is never far from the surface, at the very least as a convenient excuse for inaction. Merit-based...

Post-pandemic turmoil in the housing market of America's largest city? Laissez-faire. Leave it be. Let the private sector, master of all housing matters, perform any needed recovery. . . ....

Shelterforce is an American publication promoting community activism in a number of areas, particularly housing. In a recent article, it poses the "what if" question framed in the headline...

European nations such as Denmark and Austria have done very well by housing large portions of their population in social housing. Nowhere, however, has the public housing been such...

Public Private Partnerships (PPPs), given free rein for several decades, now clearly define how they can serve a particular set of needs — where the term "Public" stands for...

Toronto's Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust is buying properties in a rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood with the goal of making sure that homes are available to people with very low incomes. At...

Yes, there are people who wonder whether home ownership is all it's cracked up to be. This intriguing point of view diverges substantially from the idea that everyone should...

A recent article in The Guardian forms a basis for our headline. That article connects financial incentives for first time buyers to a plague of ugly, shoddy new build multi-unit...

As cities cores become higher, denser, and more gentrified, the American dream is changing shape. What was once the lure of a single family home on a private lot...

Affordable can homes be realized from lower prices, but also higher income. Advice to young Americans once counselled to 'Go West" to make their fortune? These days, you might be better off going north.

From a worldview of a gang of teenagers trying to break a record for the number who will fit into a car (and haven't noticed they're parked too close...

Apologies for the doom-laden headline, but there's seldom a chance to use a pithy poetic-sounding phrase, particularly one that containeth that sophisticated 'eth' sound. After all, a sleazy single...

Tenancy In Common? Well, first we need to make liars out of ourselves by admitting that it's not really affordable, at least not so far as affordablehousingaction.org is concerned....

Currently there's a great deal of hand-wringing about the 'commodification' of housing, in particular its link to exploding housing prices and to blossoming housing crises everywhere. Some go so...

In the free markets of today's democracies, housing is an investment, not a human right. To build housing in this commodified environment is to pursue profit, not to reaffirm...

Can't get elected as a city councillor in The Soo?The Soo is the nickname of Sault (pronounced 'Soo') Ste. Marie in the province of Ontario If you're a carpenter...

Habitat for Humanity, arguably one of the most respected and successful affordable house building charities in the world, is undergoing a sea change. Even with its ability to mobilize construction...

Democratic candidates for the U.S. federal elections in 2020 have broached the subject of reparations for the continued mistreatment of black Americans that followed emancipation. So far, while there...

From the Right: eliminate onerous government regulations and the free market will build us all out of affordable housing crises, providing the necessary housing for ownership by the "workforce,"...

The housing market collapsed in 2008 and caused an economic recession in the United States, which spread to other countries. It was triggered when new homeowners found themselves 'under...

Part three looks at some of the unexpected consequences of an American Fever-Dream — home ownership, but not just any home: bigger, more unique, prestigious and. . . for reasonably well off citizens . . . affordable.

Community Land Banks, under one name or another, have been around pretty much since the dawn of cities. They are the result of communities, through one means or another, acquiring...

Let's take the following media declaration at face value: "4 Out Of 5 Americans say there is a housing affordability crisis." Based on a sample of 20,000 people that's...

A recent edition of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation's (CMHC) Housing Market Insight looks at housing trends among baby boomers in the Greater Toronto area. Baby boomers are...

Without a parents' basement to inhabit while saving for a house down-payment, millennial Aussies entering the housing market are facing a bleak future. Rising rents are taking such a...

We've seen several articles recently that address a conspiracy-theory notion of an affordable housing 'crisis'. Note in the previous sentence how the quote marks around affordable housing 'crisis' tend...

Company towns have a special relationship with their citizens. They are usually, though not always, born out of necessity: their remote location. Why create a town in the middle of...

Swedish construction company Skanska, in partnership with well-known furniture retailer Ikea wants to build affordable housing in Worthing, Sussex, UK. 30% of the BloKlok partnership's modular housing project will be set...

Over-the-hill American heartland cities are currently licking their lips at the prospect of the reverse migration of talented young professionals from increasingly unaffordable coastal boom towns such as San...

Panhanding on street corners for coffee (or beer)? Not okay! Panhandling for a step up onto the housing ladder, particularly if the handout is enormous? Now you're talking! A National Association...

The American Dream (which was once something elseThere’s a Wikipedia post about the American Dream from a range of perspectives.) has for a while time now been to 'own...

The housing market, most unfortunately, is absolutely everywhere. As well, it's absolutely stuck in its everywhere place. (With rare exceptions, nobody buys a house — should they be able...

America is a land with no constitutional right to housing, but a pressing need for it, nonetheless. What is a house? With no constitutional definition, it's becoming ominously clear that...

"Affordable Housing? How quaint. Of course. Only take it somewhere else. Otherwise I personally guarantee to shove your XXXX up your YYYY until you bleed buckets and scream for...

Forget tempting financial carrots to coax developers into supporting affordable housing. Montreal, Quebec is planning to bring the big stick to multiple housing developments in the city. Incumbent mayor Mayor...

Habitat For Humanity is universally admired — a wildly successful hands-on religion which combines charity and sweat equity in its clarion call to service. Over the years, volunteers have...

Depending on the city you live in, affordable rental housing can be difficult to find, let alone 'rent to own' housing. However, any housing wrinkle may be worth a...

Public funding, foundation grants, sweat equity, donated land, land trusts, all these and more play a part these days in attempts to piece together affordable housing projects aimed at...

Thanks to housing industry lobbying, the affordable housing crisis that requires government subsidies has expanded upscale from traditional definitions of affordability. The gravy train of subsidies everywhere encompasses 'missing middle'...

If capitalism is ever to successfully embrace and uplift the third world poor, it will have to reinvent its understanding of land ownership and human shelter in a slow...

Affordable housing is not just a collection of construction material and land costs. It's a purse that must stretch to cover a rental or purchase . . . after...

Actually, we don't really feel we can say too much about the potential of Community Land trusts. Just at the moment, virtually all national governments around the world seem far...

Eager to climb onto the first rung of the 'housing ladder'? Not convinced by the snarky attitude of blogs like affordablehousingaction.org, that spend column inches eye-rolling at the sanity...

Habitat For Humanity, the affordable housing fundraiser par excellence, the folks who perfected volunteer sweat equity, have thrown up their hands in California and cried 'uncle.' The bottom line: in...

In a reflection of the rapidly worsening national affordable housing crisis, city councils across America are scrambling to put together strategic plans for coping. What follows is an article highlighting...

Compulsory city gambling??? But how else do you describe taking general city revenue to run lotteries with housing loans as the prizes? The saddest thing about this proposal is...

With affordable homes at the mercy of the housing market, the basic human need for shelter is pitted against retirement savings and family wealth. The problem exists in Maine,...

"Affordable" housing? Just what does it actually mean? Current confusion over the term "affordable" housing has been deliberately fomented by some of the major players in the homebuilding sector,...

In some western democracies the social housing experiment has been hampered by cold war attitudes, particularly in America. The national mindset: anything smacking in some way of big government...

A Trulia Research Special Report recently updated an earlier exploration of professions which were struggling with affordable housing issues. For many it's a difficult choice: either impoverished by housing and living...

Across the ocean or close to home the dilemma is the same: unaffordable housing is killing the chance of young people ever making it to the first rung of...

Some pretty darned exceptional Americans have donated sweat equity to help form no less than thirty-four little communities of good spirit and good work in the company of other...