Life science investment volume is on a record pace in 2021, reaching $9 billion for the first half of 2021, according to 2021 Mid-Year Life Science Overview & Market Clusters, a new report by Newmark.

According to data provider Apptopia, mobile applications, such as SpotHero and ParkMobile, have now exceeded their January 2020 levels by 6.2 percent in terms of monthly average U.S. users.

After more than four years of planning and construction, operations have begun at the Amazon Air Hub at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. This $1.5 billion investment in Northern Kentucky will eventually create thousands of jobs for people from various backgrounds, including load planning, management of package sortation, and robotics technology.

In any industry, large-scale projects tend to draw more attention. However, there is also a lot to be said for building small, said Jim Heid, founder of Urban Green, and also a founding partner of CraftWork, a coworking and community hub in Healdsburg, California, speaking during a recent ULI webinar.

Affordable and workforce housing policies and programs put in place by the governments of Alexandria, Virginia; Houston; and Minneapolis have been selected as finalists for the 2021 ULI Robert C. Larson Housing Policy Leadership Award. The annual award, presented by the ULI Terwilliger Center for Housing, recognizes innovative ways the public sector is addressing the nation’s affordable housing crisis.

A new ULI Chicago report seeks to focus the attention of policymakers on issues stemming from decades of disinvestment. The city needs to work long term on addressing racism, promoting diversity in housing, increasing jobs citywide, and investing in public works.

According to an annual survey by RCLCO, the top-selling U.S. master-planned community so far in 2021 is Lakewood Ranch in Sarasota, Florida, with 1,535 sales through June, 83 percent ahead of last year’s pace. Home sales in the nation’s top 50 communities exceeded expectations in the first half of 2021, with a pace that indicates the potential for a 12 percent increase at year’s end compared with 2020.

Five internationally renowned real estate industry leaders have joined ULI’s Global Board of Directors, and 34 additional industry luminaries have been added to the roster of the Institute’s Global Governing Trustees. Both the Global Board members and Global Governing Trustees will serve on a voluntary basis beginning in July.

A group of renowned urban planning and real estate experts representing ULI will be making recommendations this week to the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, on creating safe, sustainable housing for workers who are engaged full time in employment or training, focusing specifically on the Downtown Eastside neighborhood of Vancouver—which is a unique challenge unto itself that has only intensified as a result of the global pandemic.

The Asia Pacific region’s key real estate markets are likely to witness a sustainable and resilient recovery in the next three years, bouncing back from recent weakness triggered by the spread of COVID-19, according to the inaugural ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast report for the region.