Archives

All Dates > John K. McIlwain > All Topics

• November

  11-06-12

  Sandy and the Rising Tide: Responding to the Rise in Sea Levels

  There are many tough issues to be addressed in finding the best ways to build resilience into coastal regions. But there is also much that has already been studied, is well known, is practical and can be implemented now without the need for new studies. What is needed is for these recommendations to be enacted and to become part of zoning and building codes and the process of approving new development and infrastructure.

• October

  10-25-12

  Is Small Beautiful Again? The Sudden Interest in Micro-Apartments

  Could apartments one-fifth the size of what is now typical in New York City be a viable solution to the city’s notorious lack of affordability?

• June

  06-06-12

  Greening Senior Housing: Healthier Living and Healthier Finances

  With over 50,000 senior housing developments across the country, the opportunities for energy reduction and financial savings achievable through retrofitting increasingly warrant serious consideration. Occupants should be involved from the start.

• April

  04-05-12

  The Great Recession: A Slayer of Sprawl

  John McIlwain, ULI senior resident fellow for housing, says new Census data on areas of population growth is further proof that this is the century of urbanization.

• February

  02-23-12

  Seniors—In Which Metro Regions Are They Living?

  Part 1: Metropolitan Regions: The growth in the nation’s population of seniors is already figuring in national debates about health care and Social Security—but at the local level, the impact will be even greater.

• 02-23-12

  Seniors—In Which Cities Are They Living?

  Part 2: The Cities: From 2000 to 2010, the U.S. senior population grew 20 percent, but this growth has not been evenly distributed around the country. And given the uncertain economy, future trends are hard to predict.

• January

  01-30-12

  Fixing the Housing Markets: Three Proposals

  Little on the horizon promises change, but there are three ways the federal government could revive housing, says John L. McIlwain, ULI’s senior resident fellow, housing. The two most significant ideas are politically controversial and would require stronger leadership than has been shown on housing to date.

• 01-04-12

  The Rental Boost From Green Design

  There is growing evidence that energy-efficient and green apartments rent up faster than others and are experiencing less turnover—a trend the apartment industry would do well to watch.

• December

  12-16-11

  Writing Down Mortgage Principal

  Because U.S. housing markets are failing to find a bottom, more and more economists are coming to believe that writing down the loans of underwater homeowners is what will end the recession.

• 12-07-11

  The Surprisingly Simple Amenities that Help Urban Residents Age in Place

  Many U.S. cities—and suburban town centers—are looking for ways to make themselves more age-friendly. These amenities will be key to attracting residents who prefer to age in place and the growing number of empty nesters drawn to urban life.

• August

  08-17-11

  Suburbs, Cities, and Aging in Place

  ULI Senior Resident Fellow John McIlwain writes that with the percentage of the global population of people over 60 increasing, and with the world’s population becoming ever more urban, cities now need to find more ways to let seniors age in place.

• 08-12-11

  Should the Administration Rent Its Growing Inventory of Foreclosed Homes?

  Renting single-family homes is a tough business—yet the government is looking for ways it might rent out the 250,000 homes that Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration now own.

• 06-01-11

  Suburbs 2.0: The Evolving American Suburbs

  Rapid growth on the furthest edges of metropolitan regions is a continuation of a pattern six decades old; what is new, however, is the resurgence of the innermost ring of suburbs in the last decade.

• May

  05-13-11

  Redefining Seniors’ Housing

  The seniors’ housing markets are in for surprising and unsettling changes. Looking only to the past to predict the future markets will be a mistake.

• March

  03-29-11

  Video: Gen Y and Housing Trends

  John McIlwain, ULI senior resident fellow for housing, discusses what Gen Yers will want in housing.

• 03-29-11

  Video: Seniors and the New Senior Housing

  John McIlwain, ULI senior resident fellow for housing, discusses what three distinct groups of seniors will want in housing.

• 02-23-11

  Homeownership: Deferring the Dream

  Demographic trends, high levels of foreclosures, high unemployment and underemployment, and tightened mortgage financing standards will continue to affect the number of new homes sold going forward.

• 02-22-11

  Reforming America’s Housing Finance Market: The Administration’s Proposal

  John K. McIlwain notes that for the first time in 70 years, an administration has backed away from an all-out commitment to homeownership and even pulled its support from Fannie and Freddie, says a recent U.S Treasury paper.

• 01-06-11

  Who Are You Calling a Senior?

  It is unlikely that the boomers will be looking for traditional retirement housing for at least ten to 15 years. When they do, expect them to want a very different style and organization of seniors’ housing.

• 12-08-10

  What Does the New Congress Mean for Housing Finance?

  Among other issues to watch, the new Republican majority in the House is likely to bring forward a bill calling for the abolition of the GSEs within the next several years and likely will not call for the creation of any new federally sponsored entities to replace them, contrary to the proposal the Administration is likely to put forward.

• 11-23-10

  Housing Gen Y: The Next Challenge for Cities

  Simply put, generation Y represents the future of every region’s economy. Any city or metropolitan region that cannot provide affordable, walkable, and attractive neighborhoods in which gen-Yers can afford to live will simply lose the best of them to those regions that have such neighborhoods.

• 11-10-10

  Planned Communities: What Lies Ahead?

  It is probable that the future holds considerable challenges to the viability of master-planned communities, and that market trends will require new and even more expensive development patterns.

• 10-14-10

  Is It Time for a Federal Moratorium on Foreclosures?

  The lack of new jobs and the high rate of unemployment especially among the "Echo Boomers" who should be buying their first homes, estimated by some to be over 30%, will keep household formation, now a quarter of what it would normally be, low and housing demand stalled.

• 10-05-10

  Next Generation Master Planned Communities – Planning for the New Homebuyers

  There has been a drastic drop in U.S. household formation from an average of 1.6 million a year through 2007 to under 400,000 for the past several years and the current trends will affect design of master planned communities.

• September

  09-08-10

  It’s Not Over until It’s Over: Housing Finance after Dodd-Frank

  The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173) is the most sweeping legislation regulating the U.S. financial services industry since the Great Depression, including the provisions relating to securitization of mortgages.

• 09-02-10

  Reviewing Treasury's August 17 Meeting Regarding the GSEs

  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner began the August 17 meeting by asserting that there will be fundamental changes to the two GSEs, but rather than delineate specifics, he went on to identify the four key policy challenges.

• 08-01-10

  Missing in Action: The Private Mortgage Market

  For the past two years, 96 percent of all financing for housing in the United States has been provided by the federal government. The private mortgage market has become little more than a memory now.