The Fair Housing Act of 1968: What It Does and Why It’s Important
As Fair Housing Month begins, it’s important to look back at the landmark legislation that helped bring us to this point. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 reversed decades of overtly (and more subtle) discriminatory housing practices, and established a number of critical protections still important today.
Healthy Housing: Where Higher Rents Are Correlated With Worse Health
There is a strong correlation nationwide between communities with higher median rents and a larger proportion of local residents in poor health – even when incomes in those communities are similar.
Subdued new home construction activity in recent years is pushing up the price and age of those homes that do sell, and contributing to slower depreciation in value among aging homes that otherwise would become more affordable. As a result, those homes that are affordable for lower-income, renter households are increasingly older and potentially a lot more hazardous.
Savings on Auto-Pilot: How Much Less Could Driverless Car Commuting Cost?
Thanks to ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, the cost of getting a door-to-door ride of a few miles today is less expensive than ever. And looking ahead, switching to a driverless system could eliminate roughly two-thirds of the current cost of a typical Uber ride (even using very conservative assumptions) – helping pave the way for a dramatic re-imagining of public transit planning and affordable community development.
Destination-Based Cash Flow Taxation: What is it and Why Does it Matter?
A so-called “destination-based cash flow” taxation system is currently the hot topic of discussion around tax reform in this country. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is pushing the idea hard, but just about every other day it seems the prevailing wisdom says the idea is dead, and then alive again. But just what is it, and how does it work?
