This post highlights the grand opening of Buchanan’s Crossing, a fully accessible mixed income community serving veterans and seniors in Kansas City, Kansas. Project sponsors, city leaders, lenders, investors, future residents, and the construction team gathered to celebrate the completion of the first phase. The development will ultimately include forty two and three bedroom duplex units and required a major off site sanitary sewer improvement, including a one hundred forty four foot bridge that supports utilities for the project and future growth in the area. Jeff Carroll and Bob Hughes addressed attendees before the ribbon cutting and walk through, marking an important milestone for the community.

CBRE Research’s report, The Case for Workforce Housing, outlines why this underserved segment offers strong investment potential. The study points to solid supply and demand fundamentals, noting that workforce housing consistently demonstrates stable occupancy, resilient renter demand, and reliable performance across market cycles. CBRE concludes that these characteristics give the sector a strong foundation for continued good investment returns, reinforcing the importance of expanding housing options for middle income renters.

This post summarizes Fannie Mae’s findings on the workforce housing market, defined by the Urban Land Institute as households earning sixty to one hundred percent of Area Median Income. This group represents roughly thirty percent of all renter households in the United States, yet very few new units are being built to serve them. Most new construction targets renters earning above one hundred percent of AMI or below sixty percent of AMI, leaving a significant gap for the middle income households who form the backbone of local economies.

Marcus and Millichap’s fourth quarter twenty eighteen multifamily report for Charlotte shows strong market momentum driven by household formation and economic growth. Metro vacancy declined twenty basis points to four point four percent, while average rents increased four point six percent. Developers delivered seven thousand eight hundred units over the past year, two hundred more than the prior period, yet absorption remained brisk as renter demand continued to outpace new supply. The report also highlights a four hundred thirty dollar affordability gap between renting and owning and notable rent growth in older, more affordable pre nineteen seventies buildings, underscoring the ongoing need for workforce housing in the Charlotte area.

Marcus and Millichap’s fourth quarter twenty eighteen multifamily report for Raleigh highlights strong economic and housing market performance. Metro vacancy contracted sixty basis points to four point eight percent as renter demand outpaced new inventory. Average rents rose three point five percent to one thousand one hundred six dollars. Employers added twenty six thousand workers over the past year, fueling demand for housing. More than five thousand two hundred sixty units were delivered, nearly matching the prior year’s production, yet absorption remained high. The report also notes a seven hundred twenty five dollar affordability gap between renting and owning and significant rent growth in older nineteen seventies era buildings, underscoring the need for additional workforce housing in the Raleigh area.

Tartan Residential presented the site plan for Davidson’s Landing, a proposed one hundred fifteen unit apartment community in Kansas City, Kansas, during the Unified Government Planning Commission meeting on December ten, twenty eighteen. Jeff Carroll led a fifteen minute presentation, answered questions from staff, commissioners, and neighbors, and outlined the project’s goals and design. The commission voted seven to zero in favor of the proposal, allowing the development to move forward.

This post highlights Park Avenue Green, the largest Passive House development in North America. The project delivers 154 low income housing units, including 46 reserved for formerly homeless residents, and showcases how cutting edge energy efficient design can be integrated into affordable housing. The building’s Passive House certification reflects its commitment to dramatically reduced energy use, improved indoor comfort, and long term sustainability.

This article highlights the rapid growth of modular construction within the multifamily sector. Although modular still represents only a small share of overall commercial construction, it is expanding quickly. Research from the Modular Building Institute shows that manufacturers produced just over 1,100 modular apartment units in 2017, and more than doubled that output to 2,300 units in 2018. The piece underscores how off site building methods are gaining traction as developers look for faster, more efficient ways to deliver high quality multifamily housing.

This article highlights how Canadian high schools are expanding skilled trades programs in partnership with local institutions like the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board and St. Clair College. Students can begin training early, gaining hands on experience and industry credentials that position them to become fully qualified electricians or plumbers by age twenty. The piece underscores how early exposure to trades education can strengthen the workforce pipeline and offer students strong, practical career pathways.

This post raises a long standing question about why so few Republicans publicly embrace YIMBY principles, despite the party’s traditional support for market driven solutions and regulatory reform. The referenced discussion with Nolan Gray of the Mercatus Center explores how pro growth housing policies could align with conservative priorities, and why that alignment has not yet translated into a larger Republican YIMBY presence.

This article argues that rising housing costs, homelessness, and environmental pressures demand a shift away from exclusionary NIMBY attitudes. Instead, it calls for a YIMBY approach that embraces dense, responsible development. By supporting more housing in more places, communities can expand supply, reduce displacement, and create healthier, more sustainable urban environments.

This article argues that rent control does not address the root causes of rising housing costs. When legislation restricts housing supply, prices climb regardless of caps. The piece emphasizes that simply “letting the market handle it” is not enough, because many government interventions already limit the ability of builders to deliver affordable homes. Zoning rules and other land use regulations are identified as major drivers of high housing prices. The article concludes that meaningful affordability requires land use liberalization and the repeal of restrictive measures that prevent new housing from being built.