Posted To: MND NewsWire
The Urban Institute says one solution to the nation’s high rental costs is an old one, but financing may be making it unnecessarily inaccessible. Laurie Goodman, writing in the Institutes blog Urban Wire says that, in 2013 nearly 20 percent of rental apartments were located in two to four unit buildings. She says these buildings “play an essential role in the rental market because they are prevalent in underserved communities and more likely to be owned by minorities and affordable to very low income families than other rental units” Goodman says two- to four-unit properties have always made up a tiny share of what is usually characterizes as single-family lending (as opposed to multi-family lending in buildings with five or more units) but their importance is unequivocal. From 2000 to 2007…(read more )