The housing market will recover, but we just don’t know when, says Brad DeLong at the ULI 2011 Spring Council Forum in Phoenix, Arizona. Mr. DeLong says that while the current, anemic housing market can be attributed to real causes, it is part of the normal business cycle and other factors. Read what Mr. DeLong, Professor of International Economics at UC Berkley, sees ahead for the economy.

The ULI report “Resilient Cities: Surviving in a New World” looks at the principles of resilient cities, as well as issues and solutions related to building resilience in European cities. According to the report, resilience should be a main goal because international institutions and the private sector are attracted to cities that are better prepared to handle uncertain times. Read the ten principles for resilient cities.

An international panel of real estate and land use experts convened by ULI advised the city of Chester, England, on how best to revive its aging retail district and leverage those efforts to create further revitalization programs. The city is trying to be “too many things to too many people,” panel members said. Read what areas the panel suggested Chester should focus on.

The population of seniors in the United States is rising at a rate without precedent. At the same time, the character of the population is changing in new and unexpected ways. This is bringing both challenges and opportunities to the seniors’ housing market. Read about the three distinct groups of seniors and the types of housing they are expected to seek.

Laws and regulations affect all types of real estate in all markets, but perhaps nowhere more profoundly than in the nation’s capital. For this reason, federal rules and regulations for leased facilities are watched closely by private sector owners and developers of office space. Read what a panel of industry insiders at the recent ULI Washington Real Estate Trends Conference had to say about this topic.

Interest in reducing energy consumption in commercial buildings is gaining momentum in the public and private sectors. The efforts of both of these sectors took center stage at the Catalytic Convening on Energy Efficiency event, which brought together some 200 emerging leaders in the sustainability movement to discuss how to better align and advance the energy-efficient retrofit market. Read more.

The expectation for the merged ProLogis and AMB is that the combined customer relationships, land banks, and financial resources will give it a leg up on a lot of its competition as it endeavors to expand its building portfolio. Read how analysts expect the firms’ respective geographic footprints to complement each other.

Businesses, their organizational cultures, and their places of business are inextricably intertwined—so much so that organizational success depends in large part on the alignment of place assets with business direction and the agility of those assets in responding to business growth and change. Learn the six essential steps for successful strategic facility planning.

The market for commercial real estate mortgages sliced, diced, priced, and marketed as commercial mortgage-backed securities is back in force. In the U.S., issuance in the first quarter 2011 equaled $8.7 billion with non-U.S. offerings totaling $1.3 billion. Read who the top 10 originators were and about the types of property collateralizing the various offerings.

A change is in the wind for food retailing in the United States, much of it focused on cities. Grocery stores are following the housing units developed in recent years in downtowns and close-in neighborhoods. As a result, independent grocers and national chains alike are licking their chops, seeking a place in the multiple-niche urban environment. Read about the challenges these infill locations present.