Housing stories were scarce this week as national economic and international events dominated the news. The business indicators remained gloom,…
Category: Local issues
Local issues consist of housing topics faced by city and county governments that are of interest to local organizers and community groups.
Karen Paup’s testimony on post hurricane housing rebuilding in Texas
Note: Karen Paup was invited to testify before a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security Committee on post-hurricane housing disaster…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 6/2/2009
Ever-optimistic realtors claim steady sales transactions at foreclosure auctions bode good news for the housing industry but realists point out…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 5/26/2009
John Henneberger note: I have fallen a bit behind in posting Bo’s excellent housing news summaries during the last weeks…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 4/26/2009
The housing industry offers no silver linings in the gloomy clouds over the US economy. Home values continue to drop…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 4/14/2009
Frozen by the recession, the nation’s exurbs are folding. Thousands of unfinished tract developments mark both the boundaries of sprawl…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 4/7/2009
Stories of mortgage scams and foreclosures largely receded to the second pages of newspapers this week as editors and writers…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 3/24/2009
As the recession evolves to a depression, those in the top income bracket cling to their accumulations and wait for…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 3/17/2009
Six months after Hurricane Ike, Galveston’s poor are still shuffling about looking for housing. FEMA has finally opened a trailer…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 3/10/2009
The recession slowly seeps into Texas as mortgage defaults climb within a sagging economy that is increasingly characterized by layoffs…
The struggle begins to successfully design a TX Neighborhood Stabilization Program
I have previously expressed concerns about how the new Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) can be successfully implemented. I attended a…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 3/3/2009
The nationalization of mortgage banks draws debate this week with conservatives arguing that “flexibility” will be jeopardized. Meanwhile, the inflated…
Houston homeownership initiative spurs outrage – but there is a worse dimension to this story
In the wake of a storm of public outrage Houston Mayor Bill White ordered the city’s housing department to shelve…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 2/24/2009
The first infusion of federal money to bailout banks had insignificant impact on housing foreclosures as bankers channeled the money…
Texas legislature focuses on unmet rural housing needs
It is no secret that rural housing needs have received far less attention than urban housing needs in Texas. A…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 2/17/2009
Foreclosures continue at record rates as the Obama Administration prepares an injection of money into the failing American economy. Meanwhile,…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 2/10/2009
As foreclosures convert homeowners to renters, construction of additional multi-family units to accommodate the surge languishes: the recession renders little…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 2/3/2009
All eyes were on the political struggle surrounding the Democratic stimulus program this week as more dismal news of foreclosures…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 1/27/2009
With the first round of bailout billions having rendered no progress in stemming foreclosures, the Obama Administration ponders where to…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 1/20/2009
A year ago, the business pages of Texas’ daily newspapers uniformly ran stories saying the national downturn in housing was…
Dallas public housing authority hires new director
The Dallas Morning News reports the Dallas Housing Authority’s board of commissioners on Thursday hired a new president and chief…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 1/14/2009
The rental housing market begins to feel the recession as vacancy rates increase and rents drop. Analysts cite unemployment as…
Texas will be forced to ration hurricane home repair grants
Texas should allocate the limited disaster funds so that they take care of the housing needs of Hurricane Ike/Dolly survivors…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 1/6/2009
Among the foreclosures and general decline in the housing market, this week we witness a huge drop in occupancy of…
87 percent of Texas communities exceed US poverty rate in new survey
My New Year’s resolution is to put doing something about the high levels of Texas poverty on our state’s agenda…
SRO housing organization shows how to earn community support
Houston’s New Hope Housing is a leader in providing a solution to homelessness through building and managing Single Room Occupancy…
Bo McCarver’s weekly housing news compilation – 12/30/2008
The year ends on a dead beat as the housing industry continues to free-fall with no landing place in sight.…
Governor Perry must act to let hurricane victims move into apartments
More than half of 5,000 Galveston County families displaced by Hurricane Ike and given federal vouchers to rent homes or…
Woman, whose fight for housing repair revealed government waste, dies in her home
The woman who blew the whistle on fraud in the City of Houston’s home repair program, featured in a front…
Houston’s Tropical Storm Allison home repair debacle provides warning regarding Hurricane Ike funds
The State of Texas is considering turning over administrative responsibility for $1.3 billion in Hurricane Ike rebuilding funds to local…