With global stock markets tanking and coronavirus cases rising rapidly in Asia, Europe and North America, politicians around the world are racing to unveil emergency measures to help the economy weather the storm. In Italy, where the entire population of 65 million has been under lockdown since early this week, the country’s finance minister has announced a policy that has earned some attention:...
Mortgage-backed securities, are shares of a home loan sold to investors. Ordinarily, a bank or mortgage financier lends money to an individual to buy a home and collects monthly payments on the loan. Such loans, can be pooled together into a single security and sold to a larger bank at a commission. The larger bank then issues bonds on this security to investors who buy them and collect dividends,...
Economies can suffer both sudden crashes and chronic diseases. Housing markets in the rich world have caused both types of problem. A trillion dollars of dud mortgages blew up the financial system in 2007-08. But just as pernicious is the creeping dysfunction that housing has created over decades: vibrant cities without space to grow; ageing homeowners sitting in half-empty homes who are keen to protect...
The American mall is a dead and dying creature, its demise chronicled in photos that fill up entire websites and books. Not all malls, however, have to end up so sad and empty. When the shoppers are gone, these are still colossal pieces of infrastructure that can be repurposed, as medical complexes and churches and apartments and more. In some cases, the shops and food courts are completely...
The Arcade Providence. Ben Jacobsen/Northeast Collaborative Architects Providence, Rhode Island has a hot new development in an elegant old building. When it was built 188 years ago, the Arcade Providence was America's first shopping mall, hosting boutiques on all three floors. Now those shops have been transformed into 48 tiny apartments and a mix of businesses, including restaurants, a...
There are two essential parts to achieving affordable housing in Kenya: building decent, low-cost homes, and developing a housing finance market that enables low-income earners to buy those homes. For, without finance, almost no home price is low enough to be affordable on an average salary. For this reason, Kenya’s mortgage market has been growing. Housing loans have risen more than tenfold since...