How to make Smart Growth affordable
by Jonathan Hiskes, Grist.org
Let’s say you want to live in one of those fancy Smart Growth developments that green urbanists are always going on about. Let’s say you want to live in any neighborhood with transit service and a grid that encourages walking and biking.
Great. Living in a walkable, transit-connected neighborhood can save you money on gas and car maintenance, and maybe even eliminate the need for a car altogether. But it will cost you too, because housing in dense areas is pricier on average than housing in spread-out suburbs.
Mortgage lenders could help make walkable urban homes more attainable by offering location-efficient mortgages (more on those later)—but it would take a concerted effort from the Obama administration to make it happen.