Now in its third year, the OneSpark festival highlights entrepreneurial projects in both a juried competition and a popular vote in what is touted as the “world’s biggest crowdfunding festival.” There will be 555 official OneSpark creator projects this year.

This past July, a company called Kisi took the grand prize at a “Hacker Challenge” for real estate–based apps sponsored by RETechNYC, an advisory firm, and ULI New York.

One of the legacies of the Olympic Games held in Vancouver four years ago is a light-rail line that has become something of an international model in transit circles.

The entire process of developing affordable rental housing could be streamlined to keep costs down, said panelists at the Urban Land Institute’s Fall Meeting in Chicago.

The much-maligned Bank of America is working “hard” on a short sale-to-lease program for distressed borrowers who don’t qualify for government-backed refinance programs, says BofA executive Ron Sturzenegger to a session on capital markets at ULI’s 2011 Fall Meeting in Los Angeles. Read more to learn the details of how the bank expects to tackle today’s huge inventory of foreclosed properties.