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Many Americans are considered severely rent-burdened, as they spend more than 50 percent of their earnings on housing. For people with disabilities and the elderly, there is a triple whammy—prices are soaring, their incomes are not keeping pace, and only a fraction of housing is built to accommodate those with limited mobility.

Just outside of Houston, a development of the future is emerging—but it is probably not what you think. Instead of flying cars and sky-scraping utopias, this version of Tomorrowland has its roots firmly and sustainably planted in days gone by.

“Knot Charleston,” the development plan that earned top honors in this year’s ULI Hines Student Competition for the Americas region, was the product of extensive research, thoughtful design, and close collaboration among the winning team of five Harvard University graduate students.

Any native Angeleno who has walked even a few blocks Downtown can attest to the state of our sidewalks. If we do not invest in the public realm—in our streets, sidewalks, plazas, and parks—then we leave on the table the vital seeds of who it is we can become as a people and as a city.

University of Southern California is one of numerous U.S. colleges and universities that are expanding their presence in cities, sometimes far from their main campuses.

In 2021, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Foundation—initially responsible for financial accounting standards—established the International Sustainability Standards Board, with the goal of developing universal, global sustainability disclosure rules. These new rules were finally published in June 2023, and go into effect in January 2024.

At the 2023 ULI Spring Meeting in Toronto, the Emerging Trends in Real Estate® session, hosted by the Institute’s University Connections program, shed light on younger generation’s perceptions of suburbs and the shifting preferences of students when it comes to choosing where to live and work post-graduation.

Foundations have given over $10 million to bolster the Institute’s efforts to help communities across the United States.

ULI visiting fellow Yvonne Yeung, who authored Building 15-Minute Communities: A Leadership Guide, recently appeared on the Talking Headways podcast. She chatted about how the guide can help create good development that reduces the need to drive, and supports climate emissions reduction goals.

Atlanta Tech Village owns and occupies a 100,000-square-foot (92,903 sq m) building that was built in 1985 in Atlanta’s Buckhead submarket. Ownership’s goals were increasing member (tenant) comfort, lowering operating expenses, and maximizing decarbonization opportunities.

This Urban Landseries introduces real estate and built environment professionals to Indigenous-led organizations working on issues of environmental and climate justice in the built environment as they pertain to Indigenous communities. In addition to profiling the work of these organizations, the series covers why these intersections are critical to understand within the wider conversation on climate change and social equity. This iteration is a follow up to a similar series of profiles created in 2020 on environmental justice.

Indigenous Climate Action is an Indigenous-led organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors, and land defenders from communities and regions across the country. We believe that Indigenous Peoples’ rights and knowledge systems are critical to developing solutions to the climate crisis and achieving climate justice.

MASS Design Group is a mission-driven organization founded to support partners in delivering innovative capital projects that fundamentally improve lives and act as enablers of shared prosperity. The mission of the Sustainable Native Communities Design Lab is to close the wealth gap in Indian Country through culturally responsive housing development and Native home ownership.

ULI Indiana is the latest addition to the global cohort of ULI national and district councils participating in ULI’s Art in Place program. Working both individually and as a group, each council aims to connect artists, developers, and community voices to drive more inclusive and participatory real estate outcomes.

More than 30 internationally-renowned real estate industry leaders have been elected to four-year terms as ULI Global Governing Trustees, while numerous other industry luminaries have been added or reappointed to the Institute’s Global Board of Directors and regional executive committees.

Whether a simple energy efficiency upgrade or a larger overhaul is needed, retrofitting is becoming an important component of the real estate industry.

Attendees of the 2023 ULI Fall Meeting in Los Angeles will have the chance to visit 888 Douglas, a former aerospace research and manufacturing facility in El Segundo that has recently been repurposed into a creative office campus.

Since its inception, build-to-rent has been misconstrued or confused with institutional investors purchasing homes out of the hands of hard-working Americans. In reality, the industry is adding purpose-built homes to the housing supply and providing another option for those who don’t want to or can’t afford to buy.

ULI Greenprint partnered with ARUP to develop a Global Green Building Policy Dashboard that allows real estate practitioners to filter by location and see a summary of key requirements related to building certifications, greenhouse gas emissions, embodied carbon, energy, electric vehicles, renewable energy, and resilience.

The Green and Resilient Retrofit Program, a new program, has made funds available from the Inflation Reduction Act to support decarbonization and resilience upgrades.

Although deals are still getting done, it is a tough market to find capital to fund acquisitions and development, and the need to deleverage maturing loans in a higher rate environment is fueling concerns about rising commercial real estate loan stress. That challenging market is evident in slumping transaction activity.

Experts discuss the growing crisis of housing attainability for lower- and middle-income households across the United States, including ways the private and public sectors could help increase housing production, preserve existing affordable housing, and give more people access to housing; strategies for encouraging communities to accept more housing construction; and other related trends.

Owned by HopeWorks and Housing Hope, this mixed-use retail and multifamily housing development provides comprehensive housing, social services, and job re-entry services for low-income, unhoused, and veteran populations.

Buro happold (bh) is an international engineering and advisory firm that began in the United Kingdom 45 years ago and now has offices in over 25 cities and 12 countries. Through its accumulated experience and lessons learned across a diverse array of subjects, the BH team offers a few thoughts on the decarbonization opportunity awaiting the land use industry.

The ULI Young Leaders Group (YLG), district council, and product council teams recently completed another cycle of the Emerging Leaders Product Council Program. This opportunity is designed to help qualified young leaders secure guest spots on product councils at the Spring Meeting and was originally established as a means for YLG members to integrate more deeply into ULI programming.

An upcoming ULI report highlights key steps that developers and asset managers can take to mitigate environmental impacts and enhance health through materials.

In St. Louis, a pressing home repair crisis is disproportionately affecting Black homeowners who struggle to afford the upkeep of their homes. This issue is deeply rooted in a legacy of racial injustice, including redlining and restrictive covenants. To find solutions, ULI St. Louis collaborated with local organizations to develop strategies aimed at establishing a Home Repair Network, which will create a new centralized umbrella organization to address the city’s home repair dilemma.

Since 2011, ULI Greenprint has introduced its real estate members to emerging ESG technology and service providers by allowing ULI Greenprint members to nominate providers they have worked with to become “Innovation Partners.” Through this program, providers share their expertise with Greenprint members through webinars, newsletters, and in-person events.

New U.S. home sales among the 50 top-selling master-planned communities increased by 7 percent compared with the pace set by the top communities in the first half of 2022

After 3,400 years, Athens will soon get its first big park. When completed in 2030, Ellinikon Metropolitan Park will be an enormous addition of public green space that may prove as important to Athenians as Central Park is to New Yorkers.