Urban Studies Commons^™

Cost Of Living For Older Adults (65+) In Mountain West Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 2024, Anirudh Polagani, Annie Vong, Mohit Pande, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet explores 2024 cost of living data for adults over the age of 65 in the largest metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) across five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The data are sourced from the “Elder Index,” a dashboard that focuses on housing, healthcare, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses that collectively reflect the monthly expenses for those over the age of 65. This fact sheet focuses on five MSAs in the Mountain West: Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, AZ; Denver-Aurora-Centennial, CO; Las Vegas-Henderson- North Las Vegas, NV; Albuquerque, NM; and Salt Lake City-Murray, UT.

The Causes And Impact Of Evictions In Southern Nevada, Mohit Pande

Student Research

As the Southern Nevada region continues to quickly grow, evictions have become a structural feature of the region’s rental market. The region has one of the highest eviction filing rates in the country and this trend has continued to increase in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. This paper examines the availability of market-rate affordable housing and the expansion of subsidized affordable housing to understand how the local housing conditions contribute to the number of evictions in Southern Nevada. Additionally, the paper studies local legal processes, such as the summary eviction system and habitability procedures, to understand the relationship between …

Urban Heat And Within-City Residential Sorting, Stefan Borsky, Eric Fesselmeyer, Lennart Vogelsand

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This study presents new causal evidence on how urban heat contributes to sorting within a city. We estimate a discrete choice residential sorting model that includes census-tract fixed effects and controls for open space and green coverage to analyze how differences in urban heat at the census-tract level influence the location choices of New York City homeowners given their race, ethnicity, and income. Our results show clear patterns of residential sorting, with whites and high-income households outcompeting other racial/ethnic groups and low-income households for housing in cooler neighborhoods. Our counterfactual exercise, inspired by Cool Neighborhoods NYC, reveals that heat-mitigation policies …

Do Americans Support More Housing?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

An analysis of opinion poll data on housing issues. The article finds that Americans generally believe that their community needs more housing of all types, but are more closely divided about whether such housing should be in their own neighborhoods. The article further finds that members of minority groups, lower-income Americans, and younger Americans are more pro-housing than older, affluent whites.

Shades Of Housing: Real Estate Urbanism And State Planning In Egypt, Zeinab Nadeem

Theses and Dissertations

The housing crisis is a global dilemma, especially in the context of urban cities in developing countries. Housing affordability has become more challenging in the recent global and national turbulent economic conditions of rising inflation rates and construction costs, where Egypt is witnessing a surplus of vacant housing units that are either unsold or unoccupied with citizens involuntarily relocating to remote new cities. The government has also significantly engaged in real estate market speculation by offering public land for profits to private investors in the market since the 1990s. The shades of housing found in Egypt are the works of …

The Shrinking Geography Of Housing Opportunity In Mountain West Metros, 2022, Hira Ahmed, Joshua Padilla, Saha Salahi, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data from the National Equity Atlas on the changing geography of opportunity across Mountain West metros. The original report includes data on the largest 100 metros in the United States. This fact sheet reports on the overall percentages of affordable zip codes in nine major metropolitan areas in the Mountain West and changes in affordable zip codes for Black, Latinx, and white households in Mountain West metros from 2013 to 2019. Data for nine Mountain West metros are included: Tucson, AZ; Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ; Colorado Springs, CO; Denver-Aurora, CO; Albuquerque, NM; Las Vegas-Paradise, NV; Ogden-Clearfield, UT; Provo-Orem, …

Investing In Virginia Through Energy Efficiency: An Analysis Of The Impacts Of Rggi And The Hiee Program, Damian Pitt, I-Shian Suen, Mike Mackenzie, Adelaide Alexander, Molly Lumsden

Institute for Sustainable Energy and Environment Publications and Presentations

This study examines the low-income energy efficiency programs funded by Virginia’s participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Its goal is to understand the extent to which those programs can address the problem of high energy burdens among Virginia’s low-income residents, and to estimate the impacts that those energy efficiency investments could have on the broader Virginia economy.

Our report begins with a review of existing research on “energy burdens,” or the concept that some residents, particularly those in lower income brackets, spend a disproportionate percentage of their incomes on home energy costs (heating, cooling, etc.). We then discuss …

Manufactured Homes In Nevada Counties, Joshua Padilla, Annie Vong, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet presents data on the share of manufactured homes in each of Nevada’s 17 counties, as reported in the June 2022 The Daily Yonder article, “With Housing Shortage Still Ongoing, Manufactured Homes are Gaining Ground,” by Kristi Eaton. The original report includes data made available by the Housing Assistance Council (HAC) for each county in the United States from 2009 and 2018.

The Relationship Between Residential Land-Use Regulations And Regional Air Pollutants, Caren Royce Yap

Student Research

As cities continue to grow at exponential rates, land use regulations, specifically density restrictions, have been implemented to mitigate economic effects, from increasing housing prices to difficult public transportation construction. These regulations range in type, taking into account factors regarding the most effective urban form for cities and recently the presence of COVID-19. Land use effects on housing prices are also adjacent to tackle the climate crisis. Two of the most common air pollutants, PM 2.5 and Ozone, are run in a comparative analysis to areas with varying measures of density restrictions to detect a possible association using multiple regression …

A Gis Analysis To Identify Historical, Contemporary, And Spatial Housing Discrimination In Denver, Colorado, Ian Sharkey

Geography and the Environment: Graduate Student Capstones

This study analyzes the relationship between housing discrimination and equity within the City of Denver. This study creates a discrimination index by combining (1) historical Discrimination, (2) contemporary segregation, and (3) housing inequity data into an index to compare the Denver Department of Health and the Environment (DDPHE) 2020 equity index using a local bivariate analysis. This study found a negative linear relationship between the created and Denver equity indexes. The variables used for the discrimination index can explain some of the relationships, but future studies should use more variables for a discrimination index.

Health Rankings: Mountain West States, 2021, Hira Ahmed, Sofia Takhtadjian, Olivia K. Cheche, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Health

Using data from the United Health Foundation’s “America’s Health Rankings Annual Report 2021,” this fact sheet compares various measures of health in the Mountain West using data from 2014 to 2021. The original report includes data on the five determinants of health including social and economic factors, physical environment, clinical care, behaviors, and health outcomes. This fact sheet examines health metrics for the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.

Housing Availability In Nevada, 2017-2022, Annie Vong, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data on housing availability across nine Nevada counties from 2017 to 2022. Eight Nevada counties are not represented in this fact sheet due to a lack of data in the original report. The original report by MarketWatch analyzes housing inventory from 2017 to 2022 and median list prices in 2022 across counties in the United States.

Affordable Housing: A National Crisis Fueled By The Coronavirus • A New Jersey Perspective, Latino Action Network Foundation

Center for Urban Policy Research

The Latino Action Network Foundation [LANF], its sister organization the Latino Action Network [LAN] and longtime ally, the Fair Share Housing Center [FSHC], have collaboratively monitored affordable housing issues in New Jersey for more than a decade. As part of its ongoing work, LANF sponsored a housing roundtable on September 10, 2021, to assess the affordable housing situation in the state and offer policy recommendations. At that time, a coalition of advocates, including the three organizations named above, were fresh from a legislative victory that safeguarded tenants unable to pay their rents during the pandemic and gave them a degree …

Shortage Of Affordable Rental Homes In The Mountain West, Joshua Padilla, Kelliann Beavers, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet examines data from the 2022 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), “The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes” for the Mountain West region. The original report includes data from 2016- 2020 American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) to help “determine the availability of rental homes affordable to extremely low-income households.”

Housing Affordability For Top Occupations In Nevada Metros, 2022, Kristian Thymianos, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Ally M. Beckwith, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet combines housing and employment data from the National Housing Conference (NHC) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to examine housing affordability for the 10 most common occupations in the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV and the Reno-Sparks, NV metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in Quarter 1 of 2022.

The Eviction Landscape In South Carolina, Ethan Magnuson

Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyze the South Carolinian eviction crisis from the perspective of radical geography. South Carolina was chosen for the severity of its crisis and the lack of research at a sub-state level. Court records of eviction filings from 2019 were geocoded and tested for spatial clustering, which was clearly visible. Plaintiff names were used to identify the most frequent filers and distinguish landlords by type. At the census tract level, eviction filing counts were compared with neighborhood characteristics using negative binomial regression, and most were found to be significant in South Carolina. …

Bringing Judaism Downtown: A Smart Growth Policy For Orthodox Jews, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

Until the late 20th century, the most rigorously traditional Jews, haredi Jews (often referred to as “ultra-Orthodox”) tended to congregate in New York City. But as New York became more expensive and haredi population grew due to high birth rates, some haredi Jews (known collectively as “haredim”) moved to small towns and outer suburbs in search of cheaper land, sometimes creating towns dominated by haredim such as Kiryas Joel, New York and Lakewood, New Jersey. As haredi populations have continued to grow, their households now seek undeveloped land outside these enclaves. But as haredim move deeper into the countryside, zoning …

A Crisis Within A Crisis: Nyc Landlords Ramp Up Harassment Of Vulnerable Tenants In Wake Of Pandemic, Joseph A. Jungermann Iii

Capstones

Already burdened with more sickness and death during the pandemic than other New Yorkers, low-income tenants and tenants of color are particularly vulnerable to additional harassment by landlords who seek to take advantage of the city's health and financial crisis to force them out. Brooklyn residents Delene Ahye, Dexter Lendor and Sonny Singh tell stories of their landlord, landlord agents and building manager’s harassment, which began during the pandemic’s most dangerous spikes in New York City. These forms of harassment included intimidation, abusive construction, constant buyout offers and biometrics and surveillance technology.

Link to capstone project: https://joseph-jungermann.medium.com/a-crisis-within-a-crisis-nyc-landlords-ramp-up-harassment-of-vulnerable-tenants-in-wake-of-e09d67968208

The Great Senior Short-Sale Or Why Policy Inertia Will Short Change Millions Of America's Seniors, Arthur C. Nelson

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

The Life And Death Of Great Cities In The Time Of Climate Change And The Covid-19 Pandemic, James Kushner

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

No abstract provided.

Neighborhood Change In Las Vegas, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This Fact Sheet analyzes indicators of demographic and economic change in Las Vegas neighborhoods and suburbs, provided by “American Neighborhood Change in the 21st Century,” a study published by the Institute on Metropolitan Opportunity (IMO) at the Minnesota Law School. Researchers reviewed data from the 2000 U.S. Census and the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) for the top 50 largest metros in the U.S. The study reports levels of neighborhood change, including economic growth, poverty concentration, gentrification, and low-income displacement. Data pertaining to the Las Vegas metropolitan region are synthesized to measure indicators of economic viability and housing availability.

Screened Out Of Housing: The Impact Of Misleading Tenant Screening Reports And The Potential For Criminal Expungement As A Model For Effectively Sealing Evictions, Katelyn Polk

Northwestern Journal of Law & Social Policy

Having an eviction record “blacklists” tenants from finding future housing. Even renters with mere eviction filings—not eviction orders—on their records face the harsh collateral consequences of eviction. This Note argues that eviction records should be sealed at filing and only released into the public record if a landlord prevails in court. Juvenile record expungement mechanisms in Illinois serve as a model for one way to protect people with eviction records. Recent updates to the Illinois juvenile expungement process provided for the automatic expungement of certain records and strengthened the confidentiality protections of juvenile records. Illinois protects juvenile records because it …

A Little-Known Law Moves Money Into America’S Low-Income Neighborhoods — But For Whose Benefit?, Emily S. Lever

Capstones

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 (CRA) is a federal financial regulation that was passed as a response to redlining, meaning the systematic denial of investment to poor and working-class communities and communities of color. The legislation rewards banks for making loans in low-income census tracts. But while CRA commitments drive investment to community development projects, it may also reward predatory or speculative investments whose recipients happen to be located in low-income communities.

Housing - Las Vegas And The Middle Class, Brookings Mountain West

Brookings Mountain West Special Events

Brookings Mountain West presents an event focusing on housing as part of “Las Vegas and the Middle Class,” a major project exploring public policy initiatives designed to improve the quality of life of the middle class in Las Vegas and to increase the number of people rising to join its ranks. Through independent, non-partisan analysis and policy development, we seek to advance public understanding of the challenges facing the middle class in Las Vegas, as well as barriers to upward mobility.

This event features presentations that examine Las Vegas as a model for understanding issues critical to the growth of …

Should Las Vegas Bet On Homeownership? Trends In Housing Affordability And Homeownership, Jenny Schuetz

Brookings Mountain West Publications

In many parts of the U.S., rents and housing prices are rising faster than household incomes. Low-income families have always been stretched to pay for housing without sacrificing other necessities. In recent years, housing costs have become a larger source of financial stress for middle-income families. While homeownership has been the primary channel for wealth building in the U.S., two recent trends raise questions about whether this is a viable strategy. First, many homeowners suffered severe financial losses due to housing price declines during the Great Recession (2007-2009). Second, homeownership rates for Black and Latino families lag those of white …

Singapore, Land Use And The Lessons For Human Development, Wellington Migliari

Journal of Comparative Urban Law and Policy

A study of the impact of using land use controls as a strategic tool to further human development among all social classes is presented. We advocate that human rights include a long-term practice of combining public policies, manufacturing industry, and property system. Further, this study strives to educate economists and those in other academic areas (e.g. humanities) on the importance of considering land use, ownership, and urban planning with economics to form a new theory of developmentalism. Singapore provides a case study demonstrating similar aspects that may shed light on that debate. The Housing & Development Board and the Urban …

The Housing Crisis And The Rise Of The Real Estate State, Samuel Stein

Publications and Research

This article — an excerpt from my book, Capital City, with elaborations on a number of key points — argues that the housing crises endemic to contemporary capitalism must be understood as a result of the concentration of global capital into real estate and the the re-orientation of state planning capacities around the demands of the real estate industry. The first half of the article explains the dimensions of the crisis in the US and the rise of "the real estate state." The second half explores policy alternatives to contemporary urban neoliberalism and the kinds of movements necessary to …

The Mountain West: Affordable Housing Opportunities, Kaylie Pattni, Caitlin Saladino, William E. Brown

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet provides selected data pertaining to the Mountain West region from, The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes, a 2018 report by the National Low Income Housing Coalition. The report includes statistics “based on data from the 2016 American Community Survey (ACS) Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS). THE ACS is an annual nationwide survey of approximately 3.5 million addresses.”

Economic Innovation Group (Eig) 2018 Distressed Communities Index (Dci): Nevada Counties, Lauren Fousek, Caitlin Saladino

Economic Development & Workforce

This Fact Sheet highlights the Economic Distress Indicators (EDI) for the 17 counties within Nevada. Using the Economic Innovations Group1 DCI (Distressed Communities Index),2 the Tables that follow report EDI for each of the 17 counties in Nevada, grouped within two time-frames (2007-2011 and 2012-2016), and showing change over time. The data provides the opportunity to compare how the Great Recession affected communities across the nation and how the ongoing recovery is reshaping the economies and social networks of our nation.

Sacred Shelter: Thirteen Journeys Of Homelessness And Healing [Table Of Contents], Susan Greenfield

Sociology

Named a Gift Book for the Discerning New Yorker by The New York Times

In a metropolis like New York, homelessness can blend into the urban landscape. For editor Susan Greenfield, however, New York is the place where a community of resilient, remarkable individuals are yearning for a voice. Sacred Shelter follows the lives of thirteen formerly homeless people, all of whom have graduated from the life skills empowerment program, an interfaith life skills program for homeless and formerly homeless individuals in New York. Through frank, honest interviews, these individuals share traumas from their youth, their experience with homelessness, and …