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The latest research from the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies highlights a problem that many communities are experiencing firsthand—that the cost burden for rental housing is expanding and pushing higher up the income ladder to affect middle-income households more significantly.

After a sluggish year with just 1 percent growth, backhoes and bulldozers should be busier in 2017 with 5 percent growth in construction starts, for a total volume of $713 billion. That is the prediction from industry leader Dodge Data & Analytics, presented at the group’s annual conference held recently at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland.

A member of ULI Los Angeles shares how his company is harnessing creativity and a lot of hard work to build attainable housing that is within reach of most renters.

Economists see a pretty good year ahead for real estate, despite a weak world economy. “The data [are] good, but we all feel this uncertainty,” said Jeffrey Havsy, chief economist, Americas, CBRE Econometric Advisors. He spoke at a panel discussion of the semiannual ULI Real Estate Consensus Forecast, as part of a members only webinar.

If California Governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to dissolve all community redevelopment agencies by this July takes effect, virtually all redevelopment activity will be immediately suspended, except for discharge or payment of existing obligations. Read about the political and public policy response, and why the California Redevelopment Association believes the proposal is unconstitutional.

Klyde Warren Park, a 5.2-acre (2.1 ha) deck park built over the recessed Woodall Rodgers Freeway in Dallas, has received national recognition as the winner of the 2014 ULI Urban Open Space Award.

Federal funds, combined with nonprofit support and a bank loan, allowed restoration of a badly deteriorated San Francisco landmark.

Both Fitch and Moody’s Investors Service still give the U.S. their top rating, but both have placed it on a negative outlook, effectively warning that Washington will need to address the nation’s long-term debt issues in 2013 or face a downgrade.

New financial models have emerged in response to a debt funding shortfall in Europe caused by a retraction of traditional bank lending since the credit crisis. European banks are once again starting to explore the concept of churning their balance sheets through the issue of commercial mortgage–backed securities. Read about two new entrants that are trying to exploit the gap.

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.