The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has awarded the ULI Foundation a $2 million grant to support efforts to advance healthy real estate and community development practices. An additional grant of $50,000 also was awarded to support activities that further collaboration between ULI and its partners on health.

The 50 top-selling U.S. master-planned communities (MPCs) during 2018 surpassed their sales totals for the previous year by an average of 5 percent, according to data from RCLCO Real Estate Advisors. The top two communities were both in Florida: the Villages, with 2,134 home sales, is once again the top-selling community in the country, followed by Sarasota, Florida’s Lakewood Ranch.

ULI Oklahoma, which serves ULI members in Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas, will be expanding its reach in Arkansas as a result of a generous grant to the ULI Foundation from the Walton Family Foundation.

Speaking at the 2018 ULI China Mainland Winter Meeting in Shanghai, Steven Zhang, chief economist and head of research at Morgan Stanley Huaxin Securities, outlined an optimistic economic outlook for China and other emerging economies. However, he said the economic and political upheaval that characterized 2018 would continue next year.

ULI has announced a new chairman and a new president for its Americas region, which serves the Institute’s members in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Global Board member and ULI Treasurer John R. “Jack” Chandler, founder of Majesteka Investments Holdings and chief investment officer and board member for Reterro Inc., and former managing director and chairman of BlackRock’s global real estate business in New York City, has been named chairman of the Americas region, a volunteer role that includes service as chairman of the Americas Executive Committee. Multifamily industry leader Gwyneth Jones Cote, who most recently served as chief operating officer for Bell Partners, has joined ULI’s staff as the president of the Americas region.

ULI has released two new reports related to building for health and wellness—one offering lessons for development of healthy affordable housing for the broader marketplace, and the other for development of agrihoods, single-family, multifamily, or mixed-use communities built with a working farm or community garden as a focus. Together, the reports illustrate opportunities for developers to create financially successful projects that improve resident and community health and promote social equity and sustainability.

According to data from Yardi Matrix, the average size of a new U.S. apartment has shrunk 5 percent over the last 10 years, while the average price has risen 28 percent. The average floor plan of a new apartment measures 941 square feet (87.4 sq m), but that is still larger than the overall average of 882 square feet (82 sq m).

The Dodge Momentum Index moved 4.2 percent lower in October to 150.5 (2000=100) from the revised September reading of 157.0. The index is a monthly measure of the initial report for North American nonresidential building projects in planning, published by analytics and workflow provider for the construction industry Dodge Data & Analytics, which has been shown to lead construction spending for nonresidential buildings by a full year. October’s decline was the third-consecutive monthly decline.

The overall availability rate for U.S. office space was unchanged as of the end of the third quarter of 2018, remaining at 18.1 percent, according to the latest Savills Studley Report: National Office Sector from commercial services firm Savills Studley. San Francisco remains the tightest market in the country, with an availability rate of 9 percent, followed by Boston/Suffolk County, 9.7 percent; New York City, 11.6 percent; and Austin, 12.8 percent.

ULI has named J. Phillip Horne, former chief development officer of George Washington University’s Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, as the chief advancement officer for the Urban Land Institute Foundation. The ULI Foundation, now in its 48th year, provides philanthropic support for ULI’s mission-focused programs, such as activities from its Terwilliger Center for Housing, Center for Sustainability and Economic Performance, Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate, ULI’s Advisory Services program, and UrbanPlan.