Ownership and Opportunity: New Report from Urban Reform Institute

Ownership and Opportunity: A New Report from Urban Reform Institute

Ownership and Opportunity, a new report from Urban Reform Institute, explores the connection between homeownership and opportunity for upward mobility.
urban homelessness

The Limits of Rhetoric

Charles Blain and Joel Kotkin — If rhetoric were magic, metro areas like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Chicago would be ideal for aspirational minority residents.
suburban housing growth

Why the 2020 Election Will Be Decided in Suburbia

by Joel Kotkin — American politics is increasingly about dueling geographies. Today's Democrats base is mostly urban, while the Republican base is rural and exurban—but suburbia will decide the 2020 election.
Making Sense of Urban Density, Death Rates & Dispersion

Making Sense of Urban Density, Death Rates & Dispersion with Wendell Cox

In this episode of the Feudal Future podcast, urban policy expert and noted demographer Wendell Cox joins hosts Joel and Marshall for a conversation on the COVID-19 pandemic, death rates, and public policy.
Combined Statistical Areas of the US and Puerto Rico

Combined Statistical Areas: Ready for the Dispersion Demand

by Wendell Cox — The years to come seem likely to see America’s historic population dispersion continue or accelerate, as pandemic and lockdown worries have severely reduced the attractiveness of dense urban cores.

2020 Standard of Living Index

Urban Reform Institute has developed the Standard of Living Index to facilitate comparisons between metropolitan areas. The Index combines a cost of living index with median household incomes in the 107 metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 residents.
Sawmills in Shelton, WashingtonPublic Domain

Domestic Migration to Dispersion Accelerates (Even Before COVID)

by Wendell Cox — In what could turn out to be a “dry run” for the post-COVID19 era, net domestic migration has strongly shifted away from the larger metropolitan areas, to smaller areas.
Small businesses on street in small town

The Lifeblood of America

by Aaron M. Renn — Shutdowns mandated by the coronavirus are a pending apocalypse for small businesses, which employ 48 percent of American workers. Businesses that either can’t reopen or are suffering a big drop in revenue will soon be insolvent. Some have already announced that they will be shutting down.
Illustration of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19

The Coronavirus is Changing the Future of Home, Work, and Life

The COVID-19 pandemic will be shaping how we live, work and learn about the world long after the last lockdown ends and toilet paper hoarding is done, accelerating shifts that were already underway including the dispersion of population out of the nation’s densest urban areas and the long-standing trend away from mass transit and office concentration towards flatter and often home-based employment.

Midwest Success Stories

by Aaron M. Renn — My latest report has just been released by the Manhattan Institute. It’s called, “Midwest Success Stories: These 10 Cities Are Blooming, Not Rusting.” It’s a look at 10 cities in nine states in the greater Midwest that are doing well economically and demographically.