Archinect - News

Barack Obama calls for a housing revolution at the 2024 Democratic National Convention

2024-08-21T15:54:00-04:00

Calling on lawmakers to do away with the "outdated laws and regulations that made it harder to build homes for working people," former U.S. President Barack Obama thrilled audience members with an impassioned plea for mass-scale housing production at the 2024 Democratic National Convention last night in Chicago. One comment ("Right now, we are building housing this big. But we need to start building housing this big") has earned him a new viral reputation as a "YIMBY."

The rallying cry echoes remarks made two years ago at the 2022 AIA Conference on Architecture, namely about the intersection between housing justice, social inequality, and government policy that architects inhabit being intractable. Both the embattled single-family and expanding multi-family markets shrank by 6% and 14.4%, respectively, last year, according to Census Bureau data.

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris' plan to build three million new homes in four years faces a considerable amount of obstacles related...

Data from U.S. Commerce Department shows surprising increase in single-family starts for February

2023-03-17T13:47:00-04:00

New data from the U.S. Commerce Department indicates a rebound in the single-family housing starts for February in what could be a sliver of hope for the market still reeling from historically high-interest rates.

According to Reuters, the data shows a positive (7.6%) increase in single-family starts following eleven straight months of declines.

The increases were led by a 1.1% rise in starts from January to February, with upticks recorded in both the Northeast and West to offset declines recorded in the South and Midwest.

Overall, however, starts on single-family homes were down 31.6% when compared on a year-to-year basis. Multi-family housing starts also rose 9.8% to a rate of 1.45 million nationwide.

The data bucks the forecast provided in the recent Q4 AIA Home Design Trends Survey, which predicted a slowdown for the year despite an increase in residential billings.

The trends may not stick, however, a...

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma weaken US homebuilding

2017-09-19T14:19:00-04:00

Homebuilding could slump further in September in the aftermath of Harvey and Hurricane Irma, which struck Florida. According to Census Bureau data, the areas in Texas and Florida that were devastated by the storms accounted for about 13 percent of permits issued in the nation last year.

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma have held down home completions in Texas and Florida, but the hurricane's aftermaths are also likely to slow homebuilding in the coming months as resources are redirected toward repairs and rebuilding efforts rather than new construction. Labor shortages are also likely to worsen and building materials are expected to become more expensive.