President Donald Trump has said that his administration is working to privatize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and end the government-controlled conservatorship of the two that has been in place since the 2008 housing crash. The plan being floated involves taking the two entities public while retaining key U.S. government guarantees to backstop loans.

Experts explore new underwriting models and tax increment financing districts to fund the rebuilding of homes and infrastructure

The 27th annual ULI Real Estate Economic Forecast points toward positive, but also toward sharply lower expectations for GDP and job growth this year. The consensus forecast calls for GDP growth to decline to 1.3 percent this year—a 150-basis-point drop compared to 2024.

10 inventive designs put housing within reach of low- and moderate-income individuals and families

As it contends with the same post-pandemic challenges that confront other urban cores nationwide, downtown Denver is leveraging public/private partnerships to bring back vitality. At the ULI 2025 Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, five leaders involved with the city’s revitalization shared recent successes and plans for Denver’s future.

Becoming an architect was always the goal for ULI Global Chair Diane Hoskins. “I’ve always loved buildings,” she said during the WLI Americas Presents a View from the Top session at the ULI 2025 Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, where she was interviewed by Emma West, partner at Bousfields Inc. and ULI Chair of the Women’s Leadership Initiative’s Americas Executive Committee.

Zed Smith is the chief operating officer for The Cordish Companies. In that capacity—now for almost a decade—Smith oversees all aspects of the company’s operating properties portfolio, which includes numerous high-profile entertainment, mixed-use, and sports-anchored developments located in urban communities nationwide. Many of those developments have been transformative, thanks to their economic and cultural impact.

At the 2025 ULI Asia Pacific Summit—May 26–29, in Hong Kong—a panel of Asian economic and geopolitical experts addressed one of today’s most immediate global concerns: the implications of U.S.–China economic decoupling and the broader geopolitical shifts reshaping global trade and investment.

At the 2025 ULI Spring Meeting, leaders from Oxland Group, Taylor Morrison, and Highland Homes convened for a panel titled “The New Builder/Developer Dynamic: Partnering for Success in a Shifting Market.” Tom Woliver, co-president and founder of Oxland Group, moderated the discussion with Erik Heuser, chief corporate operations officer for Taylor Morrison, and Jeff Stinson, senior vice president of Highland Homes.

Top 10 takeaways from ULI’s Health Leaders Network Alumni Convening in the Netherlands

A panel of sustainability experts recently gathered at the 2025 ULI Resilience Summit in Denver to discuss how the insurability of affordable housing can be greatly enhanced by using resilient construction.

At the Urban Land Institute’s 2025 Spring Meeting in Denver, real estate leaders gathered to share critical lessons learned from the catastrophic wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles in January. The panel, “Rebuilding Resilience: A Conversation with Leaders on Lessons from the Los Angeles Wildfires,” emphasized the importance of swift disaster response and collaborative approaches, as members unveiled the influential Project Recovery: Rebuilding Los Angeles After the January 2025 Wildfires report, which they hope will serve as a blueprint for other cities facing disasters.

The Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health is poised to host the inaugural event of the 2025 Planetary Health Cities Symposium in Washington, D.C., on June 16. This event aims to address the urgent challenges posed by the degradation of Earth’s natural systems and the impact on human health and well-being. (

At the recent Homeless to Housed Symposium—part of the ULI 2025 Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado—Jeff Olivet, a prominent expert in advancing solutions to homelessness, delivered a keynote address. In it, he not only contextualized the current state of homelessness in the United States but also provided a foundational framework for the forthcoming 10 Principles for Addressing Homelessness: A Guide for Commercial Real Estate & Finance.

At a panel at the 2025 ULI Spring Meeting in Denver, Colorado, legal experts shared their insights on how developers, planners, and housing advocates can better navigate the myriad barriers and evolving legal framework at federal, state, and local levels to advance affordable housing projects and initiatives.