housing crisis

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Americans Are Squatting on a Lot of Unused Space

The number of spare bedrooms is highest in history

(Newser) - Before the rise of McMansions that began springing up in the '80s, Americans typically bought homes with just enough space for everyone living there. Today, homeowners are squatting on more unused space than ever, as measured by a record level of spare bedrooms, reports NBC News . Two big reasons...

Australians Displeased With PM's $2.9M Home Buy

Anthony Albanese's decision criticized even by some in his own party

(Newser) - Australia is in the middle of a housing crisis, and many in the country are struggling with the high cost of living. So it may come as no surprise that news of the prime minister spending about $2.9 million on a seaside house perched atop a cliff with panoramic...

Near Developer's Path: One of the Oldest Trees on Earth

Advocates say Jurupa Oak in California is at risk, fear promised protections fall short

(Newser) - A tree that was around when saber-tooth tigers roamed the land is still alive and kicking in Jurupa Valley, California. But despite surviving the last Ice Age and adapting to a warming climate, the Jurupa Oak might now be in danger of development, advocates fear. This week, the Jurupa Valley...

More People Than Ever Are Living on the Street

A lack of affordable housing is resulting in a record spike in homelessness

(Newser) - Back in 2019, the US homeless population jumped 2.7% from the previous year, the highest mark on record to date. This year, that mark will be obliterated, reports the Wall Street Journal . Its investigation projects an increase of 11%. Based on a survey of data from groups that help...

Teachers Can't Afford to Live Here. School District Has a Solution

Bay Area's Milpitas Unified School District asks parents to consider renting to educators

(Newser) - If you're a family in the San Francisco Bay Area with an empty room, apartment, or backyard cabana, one local school district has an unusual ask: Rent it to a teacher. NBC Bay Area reports that the cost of housing and rentals in that part of California remains through...

This Posh Resort Area Has a Major Housing Crisis

Houses sit empty in Idaho's Sun Valley as teachers and firefighters live in RVs and garages

(Newser) - Nestled 6,000 feet in the Idaho Rockies, Sun Valley is a longtime playground for the exceptionally wealthy. For example, an assortment of moguls and titans (think Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg) gathered there last month for the annual “summer camp for billionaires,” per Variety . The nearby town...

Another Pandemic Casualty: the Ski Bum

And it's a big problem for ski towns such as Jackson, Wyoming

(Newser) - A story at Outside magazine suggests that the pandemic has threatened to bring an end to a way of life, that of the modern ski bum. And it could be a big problem for ski towns around the US, which rely on such workers to staff their businesses. The piece...

How Wall Street Grabbed $60B—and Your House
How Wall Street Turned
These Houses Into 'Hell'
longform
Mar 8, 2020 12:28 PM CDT

How Wall Street Turned These Houses Into 'Hell'

Companies snapped up 200K homes nationwide after the financial crisis

(Newser) - Chad Ellingwood's life is pretty much hell, and Wall Street is stoking the flames. That's according to a New York Times Magazine article chronicling his fall from happy homeowner in LA County's San Fernando Valley to miserable, embattled tenant in the same property, now owned by a...

City Official's Idea to House Homeless: Cruise Liner

Oakland's city council president says it could house up to 1,000

(Newser) - A San Francisco Bay Area city official wants to explore the possibility of using a cruise ship to house up to 1,000 homeless people amid a high cost of living and a shortage of housing, the AP reports. Oakland City Council President Rebecca Kaplan told a council meeting Tuesday...

Apple Puts Its Money Where California's Housing Crisis Is

$2.5B plan includes donation of Apple-owned land

(Newser) - Apple on Monday said it will put up $2.5 billion toward easing California's housing crisis. The sum from Apple eclipses pledges by fellow Silicon Valley giants Google and Facebook for addressing the lack of affordable housing in a region where affluent tech workers have helped drive up the...

Bishop Won't Move Into $2.3M Silicon Valley Home After All

Bishop Patrick McGrath says he realized he 'erred in judgment in the purchase'

(Newser) - Bishop Patrick McGrath's retirement digs won't be as posh as initially planned . In response to the backlash that emerged after it was revealed the Diocese of San Jose in California had purchased for him a $2.3 million five-bedroom home in the city, the 73-year-old has now said...

Bishop Retiring in California to Live Alone in $2.3M Home

Bishop Patrick J. McGrath's new digs have 5 bedrooms

(Newser) - The Catholic Diocese of San Jose has purchased a five-bedroom, $2.3 million home in Silicon Valley for its retiring bishop despite the 640,000-member diocese's mission of charity and serving the poor. Bishop Patrick J. McGrath, 73, acknowledged in an interview with the Mercury News that he "...

Aging Condos in a Financial Bind That Could Doom Them

'Washington Post' looks at growing problem

(Newser) - For the fifth straight summer, children could only gaze at the expansive pool at their condo complex in Maryland through a chain-link fence. A dirty tarp covers the in-ground pool at the 60-year-old Grand Bel II complex in Silver Spring, which has no money to run it or fix the...

Can 'Earthships' Solve Canada's First Nations Housing Crisis?

'I just hope it doesn’t look like a Flintstones house'

(Newser) - Could earthships be the solution to the housing crisis in Canada's First Nations communities? US company Earthship Biotecture thinks so. “This housing that we make is made to take care of people. Feed them, keep them warm, with no utility bills," the company's Michael Reynolds tells...

Banks Admit Wrongly Foreclosing on US Troops

At least 700 active-duty troops lost homes during crisis

(Newser) - America's biggest banks have admitted that they wrongfully foreclosed on the homes of at least 700 military personnel, in some cases evicting families while troops were serving in war zones, the New York Times reports. The wrongful foreclosures by banks including Citigroup and Wells Fargo surfaced as part of...

29% of Homeowners Are Mortgage-Free
 29% of Homeowners 
 Are Mortgage-Free 
new report
Jan 11, 2013 8:07 AM CST

29% of Homeowners Are Mortgage-Free

Including 34.5% of those homeowners ages 20 to 24

(Newser) - In a country ravaged by the housing crisis, a hefty chunk of homeowners—some 29.3%—have escaped the mortgage burden entirely, a new report by Zillow finds. A great deal of the 20.6 million Americans who own their homes outright are retirees: 77.6% of people 85 and...

Widows Forced Into Foreclosure by Mortgage Rules

Fine print keeps them from taking over the house

(Newser) - The housing crisis may be ebbing, but a particularly vulnerable group is falling into foreclosure because of the fine print on mortgages, the New York Times reports. Widows are finding that they can't take over the mortgage—which is usually in their husband's name—without being up-to-date on...

Educated Americans Have Most Debt
 Educated Americans 
 Have More Debt 
 Woes 
studies say
Oct 28, 2012 4:15 PM CDT

Educated Americans Have More Debt Woes

They 'thought they were immune' to the financial crisis

(Newser) - Think highly educated Americans came out better in the 2008 financial crash? According to two new studies , those with college degrees actually took on more unmanageable debt than other Americans, reports Time . "People with college educations may have thought they were immune to any economic problems," says Sherman...

US Housing Construction Hits 4-Year High

Up 15% in September: Commerce department

(Newser) - US builders started construction on single-family homes and apartments in September at the fastest pace since July 2008, a further indication that the housing recovery is strengthening. The Commerce Department says builders broke ground at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 872,000 in September. That's an increase of...

The Government Needs to Start Buying Mortgages
The Government Needs to Start Buying Mortgages
OPINION
Aug 13, 2012 1:59 PM CDT

The Government Needs to Start Buying Mortgages

Economists Joseph Stiglitz and Mark Zandi have a plan to fix the housing market

(Newser) - Five years after the mortgage crisis began, housing is still one of the biggest factors dragging the economy down. There's just one option left, economists Joseph Stiglitz and Mark Zandi write in the New York Times : Mass refinancing. "Well over half of all American homeowners with mortgages are...

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