Archive for November, 2008
Home prices rising
Saturday, November 22nd, 2008In the majority of US cities, home prices continue to decline with some cities in California seeing declines of over 30% year on year.
However, in at least 28 US cities, median prices in Q3 2008 were up according to the National Association of Realtors. Here are the top 10:
Elmira, NY - 12.5%
Decatur, IL - […]
Creative destruction from Wal-mart’s arrival
Sunday, November 16th, 2008Long-time readers of this blog will know that while I’m personally not a fan of Wal-Mart, nor ever shop there, I do support their right to exist. If they provide what consumers want, it seems somewhat futile to try to stop them.
But here’s some new research from the University of Alberta: Wal-Mart can bring about […]
Halloween visit and walkability score
Saturday, November 8th, 2008After we ran out of candy Halloween night (after about 100 pint-sized visitors), I was pondering Richard Florida’s “Trick-or-treater” index. Essentially, Florida argues that a “rule of thumb” measure of the child-friendliness of a neighbourhood can be based on the number of trick-or-treaters.
But, the thought occurred to me that the number of trick-or-treaters might also […]
Will cities be elevated?
Monday, November 3rd, 2008Barack Obama has pledged to create an “Office of Urban Policy” as part of his cabinet. This would be a first — but also an encouraging sign. 80% of Americans live in cities and suburbs — metropolitan areas. They are the centres of the 21st century, global knowledge economy as clusgters of people and industry […]