New Updates on The Edge - 11/20/2013

New on The Edge

Message from Senior Leadership:
Looking Ahead: FY 2014 Projects
In the new fiscal year, PD&R is sponsoring several projects, including new research on previously unexplored aspects of discrimination, an affordable housing design competition for graduate students, a new multidisciplinary research team, and an expert convening contract to obtain input and recommendations from housing and community development experts. General Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research Jean Lin Pao reviews these new contracts and details how they will further HUD’s mission and allow the department to maintain its leadership role in housing and community development research.

In Practice:
Sustainable Senior Housing in Rural Mississippi
Although spared from much of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction, the town of Leakesville was affected by the subsequent housing shortage in Mississippi. To help increase the supply of quality, affordable housing for low-income, older adults, a public-private partnership developed McIntosh Homes, the first subsidized affordable housing development built in Leakesville in nearly three decades.

Statistical Reports:
Housing Scorecard October 2013
Data from the October 2013 Housing Scorecard continue to indicate improvement in the housing market, as home prices, purchases of new homes, and sales of existing homes show strong annual gains. As of August 2013, the Federal Housing Finance Agency purchase-only index rose 8.5 percent from the previous year, and the S&P/Case-Shiller 20-City Home Price Index posted its highest level of returns since August 2008. And, homeowners’ equity is now at its highest level since the fourth quarter of 2007.

Policy Update:
How Research Tools Are Assisting Communities To Preserve, Plan Affordable Housing
Multilayered databases and spatial mapping programs are helping housing and urban policy research centers to better understand the nation's current stock of privately owned and publicly subsidized housing. The Subsidized Housing Information Project (SHIP), developed at New York University, and the Housing Suitability Model, built at the University of Florida, use layered data and sophisticated mapping tools to identify at-risk properties and pinpoint the best locations for developing and preserving affordable housing.