Monthly Columns Archives

A new program from Utah-based Arrive Home aims to make home buying more accessible.

Housing supply and affordability have now been recognized as significant problems throughout the nation. The issues are vast and complex, and the solutions are expensive and controversial. The financial and political implications are widely recognized by both parties in urban, suburban, and rural communities to an extent not seen in decades.

Five years after COVID disrupted real estate markets, America’s highest real estate priority is housing, and in particular, affordable housing.

On May 21, with his flair for the bombshell, President Trump, in a post on Truth Social, stated his strong interest in privatizing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – and I flashed back to October 2008.

California’s vast and diverse landscape leads to significant housing demand. Housing production meets only about 15 percent of the needed 3.5 million units by 2030.

After having chronicled how entities endure for better, for a long time, and for worse, we arrive, belatedly, at the nastiest question of them all: When an organization has gone past the tipping point and its consumption of resources exceeds the impact it delivers with those resources, what happens then? 

House passage of the reconciliation bill with three Low Income Housing Tax Credit provisions included is a significant win. Yet the successful implementation of these measures hinges on adequate appropriations for HUD programs.  

Entities are perpetual ecosystem changers, initially growing and sustaining, but eventually, their purpose can fade.

The journey to economic sustainability is just the beginning for mission-driven entrepreneurs, as they face new challenges and transformations.

On his first day in office, President Trump issued a Presidential Action aimed at reducing the cost of living and increasing prosperity for American workers. This includes directives to lower housing costs and expand supply.

In a story worthy of Charles Dickens, last Christmas Eve, Malcolm (Mike) Peabody, a 20th-century titan of affordable housing, died at the age of 96, all but unnoticed except for the legacy of initiatives and entities that he and his forebears have stood up over the decades. As I read his obituary, and that of his ancestor George Peabody, ‘the father of modern philanthropy,’ the thought came to me, entities endure. 

If you’ve chosen to read this essay, your work environment is governed by platform, pipeline, and portfolio and the health and evolution of this triad foretell your future as a player on that platform.