Notions of urbanism and density are creeping into the Solar Decathlon, a biennial solar-home competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. While many of the prototypes on display in late September in Washington, D.C., still had a suburban or rural live-off-the-grid purpose, some university groups have begun to design homes attuned to the needs of their schools’ urban settings.

The tumultuous real estate market has left many people in southern California either unable or unwilling to make the financial commitment to purchase a home, so they are turning to rental housing. As a result, apartment vacancy rates are falling precipitously and rental rates are climbing. Learn two reasons experts expect the urban multifamily market to outperform the suburban one.

If you have $19.9 million lying around, you can now purchase Bill Murray’s mansion, which was featured in Zombieland, a 2009 spoof of the horror genre. But, if this famous residence is up for sale, one wonders about other homes featured in classic films—their real locations, their physical attributes, their history—and how they’ve been ingrained in the American cultural psyche. Read more.

At the 2011 ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing Awards Gala, held September 21, 2011, in Washington, D.C., a ceremony honoring former HUD Secretary Henry G. Cisneros as a “transformational leader” also included the presentation of two prestigious awards: the Jack Kemp Workforce Housing Models of Excellence Awards and the Robert C. Larson Workforce Housing Public Policy Award.

The United States faces a tidal wave of rental housing demand—a fact that Congress does not understand, said J. Ronald Terwilliger at the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing Policy Symposium, held on September 21, 2011, at the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the Collingwood Group, the sponsor. But demand is just part of the problem; affordability, he said, is another issue.

The federal government subsidizes housing to the tune of over $200 billion per year, with the mortgage interest deduction alone accounting for much of that, said panelists at the ULI Terwilliger Center for Workforce Housing’s Policy Symposium, held September 21, 2011, at the Washington, D.C., office of the Collingwood Group. This, they agreed, is on the deficit reduction chopping block.

Local governments need to reevaluate the services they deliver to constituents to cope with ongoing fiscal distress, according to government and private sector leaders from the United States and Europe participating in a recent roundtable in Washington, D.C., that was sponsored by the German Marshall Fund and ULI’s Daniel Rose Center for Public Leadership in Land Use. Learn how governments are coping with the ongoing fiscal distress.

Ten years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, lower Manhattan has become one of the fastest-growing residential neighborhoods in New York City with a population that has more than doubled—to 56,000—over the last decade, reports the Alliance for Downtown New York, Inc. Read more to learn about the new residential and office projects that stand as a testament to this neighborhood’s comeback.

Over the past decade, the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines have all embarked on major housing upgrade programs, creating a military housing construction boom. As such, those in the industry say assignments for the military are one of the hot sectors in the real estate market. Read why companies involved in military construction expect even more contract opportunities during the years ahead.

On Monday, August 8, Standard & Poor’s downgraded the credit rating of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac from AAA to AA+, the same lower rating it assigned the U.S. government the previous Friday. While most analysts say that the downgrade of Fannie and Freddie will have minimal impact on the cost of capital, there is a psychological component to the downgrade that has to be considered. Read more.