Housing | ModeShift

CommonGrounds Community-Owned Cooperative Building Project in Traverse City, Michigan

by Keith SchneiderMay 14, 2024May 21, 20240

TRAVERSE CITY, MI – As owner of Higher Grounds Trading Company, Chris Treter enjoyed strong demand for his company’s coffee even as he confronted a related challenge brought on by the surging popularity of this Lake Michigan city. New hires couldn’t find affordable places to live. “Traverse City is becoming Myrtle Beach meets Hilton Head,” said Mr. Treter. “A place catering to a population outside the region. Our workforce can’t live here anymore.” Treter’s solution, …

Cinderella – Our Cinder Road Renovation

by Keith SchneiderJune 30, 2023July 31, 20230

Gabrielle sold her Somerset, KY home in March 2022 and moved to Michigan permanently. Part of the proceeds from the sale of her house, with an equal investment by yours truly, led us to purchase a Benzie County fixer-upper to renovate for rental. We finished the project in May, and through word of mouth it was rented immediately to an exemplary tenant who’s told us she loves her new home. Why shouldn’t she? It turned …

Cities Are Stronghold of Performance in Maelstrom of American Disarray

by Keith SchneiderJune 4, 2016November 4, 20160

COLUMBUS, OH — In the year of Trump it’s plain that the United States is entering a new and reckless age. Our federal lawmakers neglect their constitutional duties to legislate in the public interest. Ideology and inflexibility, the gravest threats to a democracy, are elevated as virtues on the political right and political left. Random massacres occur with weekly frequency. Fear and distrust and racism and hate have been unleashed as mainstream attitudes. Where are …

Newest New York Times Piece: University of Wisconsin’s East Campus Gateway

by Keith SchneiderFebruary 15, 2012February 15, 20120

I’ve been writing for the New York Times since February 1981, covering all manner of people and places and events. Most recently, much of that work has focused on interesting real estate developments around the country. The latest article, featuring the University of Wisconsin’s work to construct a new entrance corridor on the east side of campus, was posted and published today: MADISON, Wis. â€” A century after it was first proposed, a broad pedestrian …

About Those Suburbs and Cities

by Keith SchneiderJanuary 15, 2008February 1, 20080

As the dimensions of the mortgage crisis both expand and get clearer, a new picture is emerging of a nation in pain that simultaneously is coming to new conclusions about what it means to be safe and secure in America. For the first time since post-war federal policy ganged up on cities to promote suburban expansion, cities are rebounding in remarkable ways and suburbs appear to have reached some kind of new limits to growth. …

Geoff Anderson Takes Helm at Smart Growth America

by Keith SchneiderJanuary 7, 2008January 8, 20082

Don Chen, the very sharp founding executive director of Smart Growth America, announced late last year that he was taking a position with the Ford Foundation. Interesting move for a canny advocate and non-profit executive with the sort of keen entrepreneurial instincts to take an eight-year-old organization from a Washington-based start-up to a national leader in new designs for development. Smart Growth America has a $2 million annual budget and a 10-member staff that includes …

Developing Trouble in Suburbs

by Keith SchneiderDecember 10, 2007December 10, 20070

Â Two reports from different suburbs across the country indicate new kinds of pain for homeowners and communities. The first, from North Carolina, describes the outbreak of violence, fear, and break-ins mounting in new suburbs north of Charlotte. Home foreclosures prompted by the subprime mortgage mess prompted owners — local and out-of-state — to abandon properties in what the Charlotte Observer called “starter” subdivisions, where homes generally are priced for less than $150,000. While downtown …

What Is Selling? Homes Close To Transit

by Keith SchneiderNovember 11, 2007November 13, 20071

According to real estate listing services, thereÂ are nearly 41,000 homes for sale in Detroit and its three neighboring counties — Wayne, Oakland and Macomb. That’s more than twice as many homes on the market as in 2004, when the housing slump started in southeast Michigan. Moreover, it takes an average of six months to sell a house in metropolitan Detroit, and prices have slipped 15 percent to 3o percent, depending on where the home is …

Blueprint for American Prosperity

by Keith SchneiderNovember 6, 20071

Â If you’ve had the chance to visit America’s big cities, you’ve no doubt noticed thatÂ almost without exception they’re pretty terrific places to be these days. The revival of America’s big city downtowns and neighborhoods, the development that’s occurring in the inner ring suburbs, all portend something very useful to the nation’s well being in this century.Â The prosperity that’s occurred in American cities represents one of the great achievements in the United States in the …

$100 Barrel Oil Nears; Streetcars in Portland

by Keith SchneiderOctober 31, 2007November 1, 20070

Â Two items caught my eye today. World oil prices reached $93 a barrel this week, which is why gasoline at the Wesco down the road is $3.07-a- gallon tonight.Â The other news is the announcement on MondayÂ that city leaders inÂ Oregon want to dramatically expand the number of neighborhoods served by Portland’s spectacularly successful streetcar. The two developments are related, of course, because as fuel prices rise the sanity and fuel-efficiency of streetcar lines makes ever …