In the media

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Our research is regularly cited in national and local news outlets; below is some of our recent press coverage.

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USA Today

More renters over age 50 turning to 'Golden Girls' trend

After ending a romantic relationship in her 60s, Rika Mead lived alone for several years in a spacious contemporary home in Highlands Ranch, Colo. She enjoyed her privacy, but when she saw an article about a home-share matching service for older women, she decided to give it a try. “I wanted help financially, but I also wanted companionship,” says Mead, who now rents the top floor of her house to a 57-year-old woman she met on Roommates4boomers.com.

Wall Street Journal

When Retirees Should Not Pay Off Their Mortgages

Many homeowners dream of hosting a “mortgage-burning” party as they approach retirement. But paying off the mortgage isn’t always the best strategy. Sometimes, it’s better to keep that money in the bank for other purposes, such as building retirement savings or paying down higher-interest debt. In other cases, paying off a mortgage makes sense, especially when you have ample retirement savings and plan to stay in the home for a while. The analysis depends on the terms of your mortgage, the amount of your savings, and your...

NPR

In Baltimore, The Gap Between White And Black Homeownership Persists

Devan Southerland knows she wants to purchase a home in Baltimore City. She is cautious, though, after hearing about how predatory lenders disproportionately targeted minority homebuyers a decade ago. "I just want to be smart about it," Southerland says. "Because I know a lot of black people suffered during the whole housing crisis and whole subprime lending issue that happened a few years ago."

NPR

The New Housing Crisis: Shut Out Of The Market

Ten years after the housing collapse during the Great Recession, a new and different housing crisis has emerged. Back then, people were losing their homes as home values crashed and homeowners went underwater. Today, home values have rebounded, but people who want to buy a new home are often priced out of the market. There are too few homes and too many potential buyers.

The Boston Globe

Shortage of skilled laborers adds to homeowners’ headaches, costs

You’ve scoured Pinterest and design magazines for remodeling ideas. You’ve saved up or set up a home equity line to pay for the work. All you need is a contractor to bring your vision to life, so you call up a handful of pros to solicit quotes — and they tell you it’ll be at least a few months before they can fit you in. That’s if they get back to you at all.

CityLab

The Urbanist Case for Trailer Parks

Earlier this summer, the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University released its annual report on the state of housing affordability in America. The findings aren’t pretty. According to the study, the percentage of cost-burdened renters—households spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing—continues to rise, as rents have risen 12 times faster than income over the last half century.

WHYY Philadelphia

Old homes, high poverty make Philadelphia housing less than affordable for some

In Philadelphia, it’s not just a shortage of affordable housing that’s causing the crunch. Instead, poor-quality houses and an unusually high poverty rate — about 400,000 Philadelphians are living in poverty — tilt the equation so that demand far outstrips supply here, making affordable homes hard to obtain and difficult to manage.

Marketplace

Labor shortages and high cost of materials depress homebuilding, industry says

Data out today from the Department of Commerce gives us our latest indication that the housing market may be slowing. Housing starts, a statistic that charts when construction begins on the foundation of a new building intended primarily for residential use, declined in June from the month before.

Wall Street Journal

Big Builders Are Remodeling the Housing Market

One of the big mysteries of the housing market since the financial crisis is why sales of new homes have remained so low despite a strong economy and real-estate market. One explanation is a major consolidation among homebuilders, which has given surprising power to some of the big publicly traded companies. That is a big change in what has long been a heavily fragmented industry driven at the margins by small-time construction companies that built like crazy during boom years.