Category: Housing
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Rolling Back Regulations Easier Said Than Done
by James A. Bacon Virginia has lagged the nation in economic growth and job creation for a decade or more, and Governor Glenn Youngkin has made it a priority, as every governor does, to boost economic development. One of his strategies for rebooting the economy is to prune needless regulation. “The growing regulatory burden on…
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Imprisoned by the Past
by James A. Bacon As a parting gift to Virginia, outgoing Attorney General Mark Herring has overturned 58 opinions issued by attorneys general between 1904 and 1967 that supported racially discriminatory laws from poll taxes to the prohibition of interracial marriage. “While these discriminatory and racist laws are no longer on the books in Virginia,…
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Chronic Complainers Notch Big Win Against Landlords
by James A. Bacon Whether you agree or disagree with Attorney General Mark Herring’s position on the case, a dispute between an unnamed individual with mental health issues and her Manassas landlords, Gia and Ernest Hairston, makes a fascinating case study. In a press release, Herring touts the outcome — the landlords paying the tenant…
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No Critical Race Theory to See Here. Move Along Now.
Ibram Kendi, the nation’s most highly acclaimed and in-demand interpreter of Critical Race Theory in America today, will be the keynote speaker at the Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference in November. His conference biography notes that he has authored several books about racism, including “How to Be an Antiracist,” “Antiracist Baby,” and “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism and…
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Another Assault on Virginia Landlords
by James A. Bacon The Office of the Attorney General has filed lawsuits accusing 13 Richmond-area real estate companies of discriminating against prospective renters who receive federal housing vouchers. “Every single Virginian has the right to a safe, comfortable home, regardless of whether they have some assistance paying their rent,” said Attorney General Mark Herring.…
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Wait, What? Renter Credit Scores Are Improving?
by James A. Bacon Who would have guessed? For all the angst over the “eviction crisis” precipitated by COVID-19-related job losses, it turns out that the financial condition of low-income renters improved overall as the epidemic wore on, according to a new report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The federal bureau credits stimulus…
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Home Values and School Quality
by James A. Bacon It has become commonly accepted wisdom that a leading cause of poverty in Virginia is the phenomenon in which affluent citizens use their superior buying power to move to school districts with the highest quality schools. The poor, who have little buying power, are stuck in the worst school districts and…
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Virginia Leads Nation in Distributing Rent-Relief Funds
by James A. Bacon Virginia has done a better job than any other state in distributing its share of $46.5 billion in federal COVID-relief aid to renters, according to Treasury Department data published in the Wall Street Journal. Virginia has gotten 53% of its dollars into the hands of renters and landlords compared to 10%…
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SCOTUS: Give Rochelle Walensky Something to Cry About
by Kerry Dougherty It won’t be long before the U.S. Supreme Court smacks down CDC Director Rochelle Walensky’s order that revived until October 3rd a glaringly unconstitutional eviction moratorium. I can’t wait. They’ll give the woman who was blubbering about her feelings of “impending doom” last winter something to cry about. In fact, the judiciary…
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The Accelerating Scale of the Legislate-Regulate-Spend-and-Repeat Cycle Has Broken Government
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in Corruption and Scandals, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Long Term Care and Nursing Homes, Mental illness and substance abuse, Money in politics, Politics, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Social Services and Entitlementsby James C. Sherlock Virginians – the state and individual citizens – have received over $81 billion in COVID-related federal funding. That comes to $9,507 for every man, woman and child in the Commonwealth. Big money. That was Virginia’s share of $5.3 trillion in federal spending just on the pandemic (so far). A trillion dollars…
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What Goes Up Stays Up
By Dick Hall-Sizemore One of the explanations for the increase in the cost of new housing recently has been the surge in the costs of raw materials. Builders have been forced to pass those increased costs on to buyers. Indeed, prices of materials, such as lumber, did increase significantly this last year, reaching a high…
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Virginia’s Two-Decade Housing Construction Shortfall
by James A. Bacon The pace of new housing construction in Virginia has fallen markedly since 2000 compared to the three previous decades, according to the Virginia Association of Realtors. Between 1968 and 2000, 49,700 permits on average were issued annually for the construction of new housing units in Virginia. Since then, permits issued have…
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Print Me a House
By Dick Hall-Sizemore For someone who stays away from housing issues, I now have my second one in two days. Yesterday, I expressed dismay at the price tag on new “affordable” homes. Today’s topic is 3D printed homes. As strange as that may sound, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported yesterday that work has begun in Richmond…
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Sticker Shock
By Dick Hall-Sizemore I will be the first to admit that public housing policy is beyond my area of expertise. But, I am often amazed and befuddled at the cost of what is supposedly “affordable” housing. Creighton Court is a traditional public housing complex in Richmond. The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority has decided to…
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Podcast: How the General Assembly Has Changed
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in Agriculture & forestry, Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Consumer Protection, Courts and law, Demographics, Economic development, Energy, Entrepreneurs and Innovation, Environment, General Assembly, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Infrastructure, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race RelationsBy Peter Galuszka I haven’t contributed much to BR lately since I am slammed with non-Virginia work. I did manage to help out on a Podcast about how the General Assembly has changed the state over the last two years as Democrats have gained power. This Podcast is produced by WTJU, the University of Virginia…