Part of the challenge throughout California and plenty of other communities...is that we tend to make local policy — and housing policy in particular — as if the only people who matter in a community are the ones who go to bed there at night.

We don't think of people who work but don't "live" there, or who'd like to live there but can't afford to, or who once lived there but had to leave, or who could access better jobs if only they could move there, or who commute through there... — the Washington Post

Lenders often give special treatment to the wealthy, of course, but the tech industry has created a particularly ripe crop of clients who are rich or on their way. [...]

“Lenders get so caught up trying to stay competitive and finding a market edge, they basically allow greed to overcome common sense ... Easy money does fuel and accelerate the inevitable bubble.” — bloomberg.com

To help ease California’s housing crisis, Gov. Jerry Brown and state lawmakers are turning to people’s backyards.

Multiple bills with the endorsement of Brown are moving through the Legislature to make it easier for homeowners to build small units on their properties, whether in their garages, as additions to existing homes or as new, freestanding structures.

[Mayor] Eric Garcetti and other supporters hope the relaxed rules will spur backyard home building to combat a housing shortage.. — Los Angeles Times

Facebook could be your next landlord. In an effort to drum up support for the controversial expansion of its headquarters, the social media giant is trying to give back to the community by building at least 1,500 housing units that can be rented by the general public—not just Facebook employees [...]

Facebook has pledged that 15 percent of the new units it creates will go to low- or middle-income families. — Gizmodo

It’s not a new argument to say that cities are increasingly morphing from social configurations to investment vehicles. [...]

“Self-builds”, “Baugruppen”, and “zelfbouw” are just a few ways to define variations of building-it-yourself (BIY), whether done individually or as a collective. The end users (who are the commissioners), together with architects, decide on the design of their homes, and then take care of the construction themselves or have contractors do it. — failedarchitecture.com

The areas most likely to benefit from EU structural funding voted predominantly to leave [...]

With 12% of those working in construction migrants from the EU and with the construction industry already struggling to keep up with demand, any drop in skilled migrants will hit Britain’s ability to build. [...]

Analysts are already predicting a drop in supply of new homes, due to market volatility, predicted slowdown on skilled migration flows and share price drops for developers. — theguardian.com

"In most cities in Latin America, most of the building over last 50 years—depending on the city—40, 50, 60, 70 percent has been through incremental construction.” [...]

The majority of Aravena’s social housing work has also rested on the unique conditions and high level of investment from Chile’s social housing program. [...]

Isn’t asking the poor to shoulder more of the housing burden an inherently unfair proposition? — newrepublic.com

Almost two-thirds of homes in the Tower, a 50-storey apartment complex in London, are in foreign ownership, with a quarter held through secretive offshore companies based in tax havens, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

The first residents of the landmark development arrived in October 2013, but many of the homes are barely occupied, with some residents saying they only use them for a fraction of the year. — The Guardian

In just a few weeks, the residents of New York’s first micro-apartment building can move in to their new homes. And when they say micro, they mean it [...].

Spending extended amounts of time in a crowded space can be stressful; if the unit holds multiple people, the occupants – especially kids – can suffer as a result of the lack of privacy. And creative space-saving layouts, she explained, can become a source of mental fatigue. — nymag.com

In addition to housing for low- and moderate-income households, the mixed-use and mixed-income development will include a supermarket with healthy food options, a charter school, a medical facility, cultural and community spaces, a social services facility, and a rehabilitated playground that is currently closed. [...]

The 24-story building is expected to be the largest residential Passive House built in New York City and use 70% less energy than conventional buildings. — housingfinance.com

Back in 2004, Elio Ciampanella was evicted from his apartment of three decades...So he applied for an apartment in Rome’s public housing. And he waited. More than a decade passed.

Then, in February, [Ciampanella] unexpectedly had his choice of several apartments. His tale might be considered one of patience rewarded, but there was a twist: It turned out Rome’s municipal government never really had a shortage of properties. — the New York Times

In an order that sends a strong message against corruption, the Bombay High Court on Friday ordered the Union Environment Ministry to demolish 31-storey Adarsh Co-operative Housing Society. [...]

The society, originally meant to be a six-storey structure to house Kargil war heroes and war widows, was converted into a 100-metre-tall building with politicians, bureaucrats and army officers allegedly conspiring to get flats allotted to them in the cooperative society at below-market rates. — The Times of India