Livable Cities

Building Beautiful Homes

The Next Phase of California’s Pro-Housing Reforms By Eduardo Mendoza California is finally making it easier to build more housing – but the next fight is whether people like what gets built. Ugly and cheap-looking buildings can turn housing-neutral voters…

The Family Premium: America’s Missing Bedrooms

Young families are willing to pay a premium for apartments with more bedrooms, yet a significant share of developers are overlooking this profitable market in favor of smaller, one-bedroom homes, according to new research.  In “Homes for Young Families Part…

Building Babies? Baby, Build

New research reveals that rising U.S. housing costs may be responsible for an 11% drop in children being born between 1990 and 2020, compared to a scenario in which rents had remained constant at 1990 levels.  This decline, which accounts…

Does Walkability Make Us Happier?

Does living in a walkable neighborhood make people happier? Kevin M. Leyden, Michael J. Hogan, Lorraine D’Arcy, Brendan Bunting, and Sebastiaan Bierema investigate the “linkages between place, health, and happiness in younger and older adults” in their paper Walkable Neighborhoods.…