(South Philly home prices keep growing. Image: Lindy Institute)

Melissa Romero reports that Philly has a record low inventory of homes on the market, according to the most recent Q2 housing report from the Lindy Institute.

(Multifamily buildings would have to set aside 10% of units for people making 50% of Area Median Income)

Before breaking for summer vacation, Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez introduced a last-minute bill that, if enacted, would create an inclusionary housing requirement for new buildings of 10 units or larger.

(Home First Development in Portland creates inexpensive housing)

Philadelphia has an above-average supply of low-cost housing, but we also have a very high population of people who earn so little money that they can't afford even the most inexpensive housing.

(500 Walnut under construction | Photo: Jon Geeting)

My friend Jake Blumgart is a guy with a pretty unimpeachable set of lefty credentials, so it was a lot of fun to read his unlikely apologia for ultra-luxury housing in PlanPhilly this week. 

(Multifamily and single-family housing living in harmony in Seattle | Photo: Jon Geeting)

Yesterday, President Donald Trump announced he would pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement--the most significant international action taken so far to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. 

Philadelphia has been experiencing a spate of sustained growth in home prices in the post-recession period, leaving some observers to wonder where the ceiling is. The latest entry in this genre is a blog post from Jonathan Tannen at Econsult, which poses the question of whether our recent housing market trends are sustainable, or whether we're watching a bubble developing. 

Council President Darrell Clarke once remarked, "This is Philadelphia. People drive to the corner store. This is what we do.” This attitude is common in his Council office, and it leads them to seriously misunderstand--and misrepresent--the interests of 5th District residents.

The Philadelphia Fed's new study on gentrification made a big splash recently with the finding that between 2000 and 2014, the city lost one-fifth of its affordable rental units--23,628 in total.   

While various housing commentators have wanted to call the top of the market for Philly's post-recession housing boom for a couple years now, this chart created by our friend Jake Liefer should pour cold water on that notion.

This Monday, Philadelphia 3.0 hosted a policy discussion at Pipeline Philly about what the City's Department of Licenses and Inspections is doing to modernize their operations, and why this matters for the city's real estate economy.