The crushing blow to the Phoenix housing market has shifted development and economic activity previously centered on the edges of the city to development driven by employment, land uses, and economic activity concentrated in downtown Phoenix. Read about the development renaissance that has transformed the downtown core into a growing and vibrant economic center.

As green building mushroomed in recent years, some industry and legal observers predicted a flood of litigation would accompany that growth. The issue has even spawned a new term—LEEDigation. Though the level of concern about green building risks may have been overblown, read what legal experts are offering as recommendations to guard against green building–related disputes.

Some housing markets are beginning to stir, be they ever so humbly micro-markets. That’s one conclusion drawn by a ULI San Francisco panel, which dug into some of the details of nascent recovery, and what might be ahead. Some lessons learned and strategies offer insights to other markets responding to pockets of job growth. Hear what the three panelists offered to developers and investors for moving ahead.

The emergence of a new flavor of public/private partnership, sponsored by the Atlanta Housing Authority, has propelled the revitalization of dozens of housing project venues. Those partnerships, unprecedented among housing authorities at the time, have evolved into highly effective development enterprises over almost two decades. Read what caused the angst that triggered the transformation.

The San Francisco Bay Area has weathered the recessionary storm better than most regions but continues to wade through a backlog of foreclosed homes, such that virtually no for-sale housing has started construction in the past two years, said a panel recently sponsored by ULI San Francisco. But read why the panelists see a very bumpy year ahead in that market and across the country and why homebuilders should move cautiously.

Ten years ago, downtown Phoenix became a ghost town at 5 p.m.—because emphasis was placed on giant sports arenas, convention centers, hotels, and redevelopment projects with chain stores. Today, however, all is different. Read what real estate insiders say turned that downtown around and how those lessons can be applied to other cities that want to reinvigorate their central business districts.

The USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is about to secure permanent easements on five properties totaling more than 26,000 acres (10,526 ha) in the Northern Everglades Watershed in central Florida. Read how ULI member and land broker Dean Saunders pulled this deal together, and how granting conservation easements is often better than selling land outright for conservation.

According to Reed Construction Data, the Texas metros of Houston and Austin had more new-housing permits per resident than anywhere else during the past year. Right behind them were the North Carolina metros of Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte. Read which metros cracked the top 10 and about the effect of damaged credit histories on the new-home market.

Affordable workforce housing will play a key role in the post-recession economy, said ULI chief executive officer Patrick Phillips at a workforce housing forum hosted earlier this month in Orlando by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing. Listen to what Phillips sees as signs of life in the housing recovery and what the challenges are to providing the right mix of housing.

Commercial mortgage–backed securities (CMBS)—pools of real estate loans bundled and sold to investors—are back, say attendees at the CRE Finance Council’s recent conference in Washington, D.C. Read what they said about “CMBS 2.0,” the more “prudent lending environment” driven both by new regulatory scrutiny and by the market, and what the revival of CMBS means for the real estate industry.