October 2018

Get out! Why economic mobility might mean leaving home

Part of the disparity in intergenerational economic mobility may stem from a willingness to leave home Raj Chetty, Nate Hendren and their colleagues at the Equality of Opportunity Project have crafted a rich picture of the role that community plays in long term economic opportunity. We’ve highlighted some of their findings in the past couple […]

Get out! Why economic mobility might mean leaving home Read More »

Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable

A fundamental contradiction lies beneath most of our housing policy debates At City Observatory, we’ve frequently made the case that promoting homeownership as an investment strategy is a risky proposition. No financial advisor would recommend going into debt in order to put such a massive part of your savings in any other single financial instrument—and one

Housing can’t both be a good investment and be affordable Read More »

Fresh evidence for Portland’s green dividend

Building a city so its residents don’t have to drive so much powers economic growth A decade ago, we coined the term “green dividend.”  We noted that among large US metropolitan areas, Portland residents drove significantly fewer miles per person each day, thanks to the city’s compact development pattern, strong economic integration, good transit system,

Fresh evidence for Portland’s green dividend Read More »