YIMBY News for 3/13

[Eric Budd]

What Detroit Can Learn From Other Cities’ Home Repair Loan Programs

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 35.33. affordable, affordable housing, development, fair housing, homeowner, house, housing, income, rent, urban

The City of Milwaukee has seen success with its home loan program and could provide a framework for Detroit to follow. (Photo by Morry Gash / AP) *This story was originally published by Outlier Media as part of **Beyond Repair**, its series on Detroit’s home repair crisis — and what the city stands to lose if it doesn’t take action. Sign up for Outlier’s newsletter.* After 10 years and just $16.7 million in repairs — a sliver of what’s needed to fix Detroit’s aging homes — a city-backed home repair loan program is shut down for an overhaul. That means one fewer option for homeowners desperate

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Loans Were Never Going To Save Detroit’s Houses

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 29.77. downtown, homeowner, house, housing, income, project

[image: Vacant homes in Detroit.] For almost six decades, Daisy lived in the same brick house on a shady street in Northeast Detroit. The dwelling was a family home passed down from relatives who had been among the first Black residents on the block in the 1950s. Daisy shared the home with Melissa, her younger sister, as well as Melissa’s great-grandson. When we met, he had just started grade one, and a bright blue tarp stretched over the roof of their home. It kept some of the rain and melting snow from trickling through the ceilings of upstairs rooms. Contractors estimated it would cost arou

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Better Ways to Head Off Spiking Property Tax Bills

Governing

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KEYWORD SCORE: 27.31. growth, homeowner, house, housing, housing price, income, urban

America is in the midst of a property tax revolt. In 2024 and 2025, more than a dozen states passed laws meant to slash property taxes for homeowners. And in several states, including Florida, Georgia and Texas, policymakers want to go even further and eliminate homeowner property taxes altogether. These solutions may be politically appealing, but draconian measures are not the answer. They hobble local governments’ ability to raise necessary revenues to provide essential services for their residents and undermine progressivity in our tax system. In many cases, they amount to a solution in sea

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It’s up to Colorado to shield consumers from the price shock of Xcel Energy’s data-center related building boom

Colorado Sun

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KEYWORD SCORE: 20.08. affordable, construction, development, growth, house, project, rent, supply

[image: Steel framework of a building under construction with a crane and heavy machinery on site, set against a blue sky with scattered clouds.] Facing a massive building boom to meet new electricity demand, Xcel Energy’s Colorado profits could triple to $1.9 billion by 2031, while electricity rates rise as much as 55%, according to an analysis by state regulators. A Colorado Public Utilities Commission report on ways to manage and limit those potential impacts is part of a mandate by Gov. Jared Polis to cut pollution, promote economic development and electrification while avoiding customer r

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Teaching Climate Preparedness, Block by Block

Next City

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KEYWORD SCORE: 19.67. development, gentrification, house, project, urban, walk

Germantown resident Alex McNeil (left) tries using the equipment passed around during a GREAT emergency preparedness workshop. (Photo by Pryce Jamison) *This story was produced as part of Next City’s joint Equitable Cities Reporting Fellowship with Resolve Philly’s Germantown Info Hub.* Dominique London knows most of her neighbors in Germantown are unequipped and unprepared for any emergencies or disasters that may strike. “America in general is a very exceptionalist society where we think things happen around us, but not to us,” says London, who has been an educator on emergency preparedness

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Colorado’s Silent Recession

Colorado Public Radio

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KEYWORD SCORE: 18.64. development, downtown, growth, housing, project, rent

Colorado’s economy is flashing warning signs. Job growth has slowed to a trickle. Layoffs are inching up. Both the state and its biggest population center are struggling to plug massive budget holes. On top of all that, the longest government shutdown in history was weighing on the economy. The big question, though, is whether all the bleak data points to something more serious: recession. And the answer is complicated. Mountain towns tighten their belts as pandemic-fueled tourism high starts declining By Sarah Mulholland Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite Alex Shifman and Naomi Whiteley marvel at Maroo

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