Local officials face a rapidly changing world due to forces beyond their control. Impacts from the pandemic, climate change, and the racial reckoning cannot be ignored, nor can new state government requirements, ranging from housing to flood resilience. But by investing in community planning initiatives, municipal and county leaders can solve problems, save money, and strengthen their communities.
Posts Tagged ‘Housing’
Five Community Planning Initiatives To Solve Problems and Save Money
Tuesday, June 6th, 2023New Report Highlights Link Between Local Zoning and Housing Affordability
Wednesday, May 17th, 2023New Jersey is experiencing a housing affordability crisis, one that hits lower-income households particularly hard. But New Jersey has a unique set of laws requiring local governments to zone for affordable housing, and a new report demonstrates that these laws work when enforced.
Ten Years After Sandy, a Look at Population and Housing Trends at the Jersey Shore
Tuesday, October 25th, 2022Both before and after Superstorm Sandy, the trend at the Jersey Shore has been toward higher home values, a smaller percentage of housing units being occupied year-round, and an increasing presence of retirees among year-round residents. Is the Shore becoming a playground for the rich? And specifically rich retirees?
New NJF Report Explores How to Promote Racial Integration in NJ Municipalities
Thursday, September 22nd, 2022New Jersey is paradoxically one of the most diverse and most segregated states in the nation. The state has grown more diverse over the last two decades, with its non-Hispanic white percentage shrinking from two-thirds of the state population in 2000 to a little more than half as of the 2020 Census, with notable proportional growth among Hispanic and Asian-American communities. But New Jersey’s macro-level diversity often does not translate into integration at the local level, and places that are integrated at the local level don’t always stay that way.
The Risk to Our Roofs: Considering and Harnessing the Climate-Housing Nexus
Monday, July 11th, 2022New Jersey faces major challenges with the dual threat of climate change and housing unaffordability. While at face value, these two issues seem to pertain to natural or built environments, respectively, the two are inseparably linked and must be addressed in tandem.
The State of New Jersey’s Housing Market: We Need More
Monday, July 11th, 2022New Jersey is facing an acute housing shortage. Nationally, we are millions of housing units short of meeting demand, and the situation is proportionally worse in New Jersey. That was the big-picture message delivered by Debra Tantleff, founding principal of Tantum Real Estate, to kick off the session on The State of Housing in New Jersey at the New Jersey Planning and Redevelopment Conference on June 16, hosted jointly by New Jersey Future and the New Jersey chapter of the American Planning Association.
Social Determinants of Health: National and Local Perspectives
Monday, July 11th, 2022Social determinants of health are the conditions in which people are born, grow, live, work, and age that shape their health and well-being. In other words, these are the non-medical factors that impact health outcomes. Social determinants of health include traditional planning domains such as transportation, housing, green spaces, and social domains like good schools and access to good jobs.
Young People are Leaving New Jersey: Exploring Potential Explanatory Variables
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2022With the youngest members of the demographically large Millennial generation (roughly, those born between 1981 and 1996) aging into young adulthood, the number of people between the ages of 25 and 44 increased nationwide by 3.5% between 2015 and 2019. In New Jersey, however, the population in this age range declined by 1.2% over the same time period, with high housing costs appearing as a major motivating factor.
The Future of New Jersey: An Economic Forecast
Friday, June 25th, 2021The COVID-19 pandemic devastated New Jersey in terms of both human life and the economy, but as the state opens back up, there are reasons to be optimistic for New Jersey’s future. There are also demographic and real estate trends that we must proactively counter and remain mindful of as our economy bounces back. Jeffrey Otteau, Managing Partner and Chief Economist at Otteau Group, presented facts and figures to show where we’ve been, as well as projections to show where we’re headed, during The Future of New Jersey: An Economic Forecast keynote session at the 2021 Planning and Redevelopment Conference.
Older Homeowners in Car-Dependent Suburbs Face Difficulty Downsizing
Thursday, February 11th, 2021Older adults in New Jersey looking to sell their homes—most of which are single-family detached houses—as younger generations continue to prefer smaller homes in walkable communities.
