In New York City’s South Bronx, a new 47-unit complex is proving that green and affordable can go together. Fox Point, developed by New York City–based Palladia Inc. and Enterprise Community Partners, is showing that environmentally sound homes for lower-income households can be a model for the future. Read how this project further dispels the perception that green is more expensive.

The July sales figures were worse than many analysts had expected, prompting calls for a restoration of the federal housing tax credit. Existing-home sales in July dropped 27 percent from June levels and 25 percent from July 2009. The total sales of existing homes were the lowest since the National Association of Realtors (NAR) began tracking the figure in 1999. Read what many housing experts and ULI housing council leaders want.

The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (H.R. 4173), recently signed into law by President Obama, is the most sweeping legislation regulating the U.S. financial services industry since the Great Depression. Some of the act’s provisions became effective immediately upon enactment. Read more about the impact of the provisions relating to the securitization of mortgages.

An August 17 meeting exploring reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, sponsored by the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, showed wide disagreement about what to do about the two giant mortgage suppliers and when to do it. The administration has vowed its full support for these government-sponsored entities ( GSEs), but Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner began the meeting by asserting that there will be fundamental changes to the two GSEs.

One of the primary challenges facing U.S. urban and suburban governments is the growing need for high-quality affordable housing. Manufactured-home land-lease communities have played a tremendous role in housing Americans and remain the housing choice of many people, whether because of their affordability or the lifestyle they offer. Over 9 million households with 18 million people live in manufactured homes, and 45 percent of manufactured-home buyers earn less than 80 percent of the area median income. In 2009, manufactured housing accounted for 43 percent of all new homes sold for under $150,000 and 23 percent of all those sold for under $200,000. Since 1989, manufactured housing has accounted for 21 percent of all new family homes sold.

In 2009, the median price of an existing single-family home in the United States declined by 12.5 percent, the largest single-year drop since the National Association of Realtors began tracking the number in the late 1960s. But there were pockets of stable values and even rising home prices in every major metropolitan area across the country. The location of these stronger neighborhoods tended to depend on the traditional strengths of the metropolitan area as a whole.

“Resilient” seems to be the best word to describe the U.S. Gulf Coast real estate industry. No matter what Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, or Alabama experience— natural disasters, economic downturns, or other unforeseen problems—the region seems to bounce back stronger than ever.

As the economy finally—perhaps—emerges from the prolonged recession, it is difficult to imagine a future in which the United States continues to lead the world— technologically, innovatively, and economically. This becomes particularly more difficult in the face of the barrage of reports about China and India materializing as the next world powers.

For the past two years, 96 percent of all financing for housing in the United States has been provided by the federal government. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) have become the mainstays of financing for both homeownership and rental housing. Since the federal government’s takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the private mortgage market has become little more than a memory.

Climate change is the leading environmental issue of our time, one that likely will be around for decades to come. Increasingly, the urban development and real estate industries will be directly affected by the climate problem—and play a key role in achieving solutions.

Much has been written about the importance of green building design and operations in reducing or mitigating the emissions that cause climate change. However, measures are also needed to reduce the physical risks of climate change to buildings and infrastructure so that the built environment will be more resilient—or able to adapt—to anticipated impacts.