With more than a half a million people experiencing homelessness on any given night, the United States needs 6.8 million more affordable housing units, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. Speaking on the “Affordable Housing through Alternative Strategies” panel at the 2021 ULI Fall Meeting, Bryan Esenberg, managing deputy commissioner, Department of Housing, City of Chicago, said that there is a 120,000-affordable-unit gap just in Chicago and that at the current rate you likely cannot just build your way out of it.

Reflections on a storied, globe-spanning career—and thoughts on today’s Hong Kong.

Outgoing ULI Global Chairman Thomas Toomey was honored at the 2019 Spring Meeting by the Institute’s leadership at the Global Governing Trustees dinner, which was held at Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame. In remarks to the group, Global Chief Executive Officer Ed Walter praised Toomey for his leadership and the financial support he provided for the creation and implementation of ULI’s Global Strategic Plan, which seeks to improve the member experience through investments and initiatives to strengthen member engagement and impact.

Longtime ULI leader Douglas D. Abbey, chairman of Swift Real Estate Partners in San Francisco, has been named chairman of the ULI Foundation. Abbey, whose membership with ULI spans 37 years, began his term as Foundation chairman July 1.

Technological innovations are affecting nearly every facet of how societies function, but it is the corresponding evolution of human behavior—not the technology itself—that is driving how the next generation of cities around the globe is being built. That was the general feeling of a panel of large-scale developers—veritable city builders—assembled at the World Real Estate Forum by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for Real Estate.

Emerging technologies will bring major changes to the real estate industry, prompting questions that people will be pondering over the coming months and years. “We’ve got to restart our thinking about what we do,” said Paul Doherty, chief executive officer and president of Memphis-based the Digit Group, a leading provider of “smart city” solutions.

A new report published by ULI Boston/New England sheds light on the shrinking middle-class in the Greater Boston region due in part to the lack of affordable housing options for middle-income households.

As the broader stock market has tumbled further, the freestanding retail real estate investment trust (REIT) sector stayed in positive territory for the year. In contrast to the rest of the REIT industry, total REIT returns for this sector are up more than 10 percent so far in 2016. Also known as triple-net-lease REITs, this is one of the smaller REIT sectors by market cap. Plus, interest rate survey data from Trepp.

Japan and Australia remain the favorite countries for investment and development, according to Emerging Trends in Real Estate^® Asia Pacific 2016, with Tokyo, Sydney, Melbourne, and Osaka taking four of the top five spots in the Asia Pacific region.

Building owners and telecom carriers are finding ways to bridge the mobile phone coverage gaps that frustrate users.