Yearly Archives: 2017

Following rapid growth across the industry in 2016, the United States solar market added 2,044 megawatts of new capacity in the first quarter of 2017. As installations grow, prices continue to fall to new lows, with utility-scale system prices dropping below the $1 per watt barrier for the first time, according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) latest U.S. Solar Market Insight Report.

The following is a statement from Urban Land Institute Global Chief Executive Officer Patrick L. Phillips reaffirming the Institute’s ongoing commitment to sustainable development as a component of thriving communities

Hundreds had gathered at the War Memorial building in Baltimore on a rainy Saturday afternoon. One by one, people rose from the crowd to share why they were fighting to build a city that is United Not Blighted. They described landlords who fail to maintain homes. Frequent evictions. Redevelopment that prices out current residents.

“Crumbling infrastructure will be replaced with new roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, and railways gleaming across our very, very beautiful land.” – President Donald J. Trump

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) announced today an agreement between a Nevada fair housing organization and the owner and manager of four apartment complexes in Reno, Nevada. The agreement settles allegations of housing discrimination against prospective tenants with disabilities who require assistance animals.

The former head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Water Program and the Philadelphia Water Commissioner are among the speakers at the American Water Works Association’s Public Officials Breakfast & Caucus, 8-11:30 a.m. Tuesday, June 13, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

National business groups representing the geothermal, solar, and wind power industries today sent a letter to Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval asking him to sign a bill, AB206, expanding the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 40 percent renewable energy by 2030.

Granger MacDonald, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and a home builder and developer from Kerrville, Texas, issued the following statement regarding the Department of Labor’s decision to rescind two Obama-era guidance documents that redefined joint employer and independent contractor status

The University of Southern California’s Lusk Center for Real Estate, a nationally-renowned real estate research center, announced today the retirement of Stan Ross, after 18 years as chairman of the Lusk Center advisory board.

As of this week, Pacific Legal Foundation has taken the leading role in the First Amendment challenge to California’s new law that empowers organized labor to rob resources from building-industry promotional associations if they don’t toe labor’s public-policy line

International award-winning KTGY Architecture + Planning is pleased to announce that Soo Im, AIA, LEED AP, NCARB and Director, Design in the firm’s Los Angeles office will be a speaker at the 3rd Annual Interface Seniors Housing Midwest on Wednesday, June 7, 2017, in Chicago. She will participate in the panel discussion, “Solving the Industry’s Next Great Challenge: Building and Operating Middle Income Seniors Housing.”

Organizations from across the country are seeking to partner with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to invest in their local economies and improve water infrastructure.  EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program received ‘letters of interest’ from prospective borrowers in communities across 19 states, an example of EPA’s programs supporting President Trump’s vision of investing in our nation’s infrastructure

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today released her letter to Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-PA) and Ranking Member Peter DeFazio (D-OR) asking for a committee hearing to examine the transportation of lithium batteries by air and U.S. efforts to ban electronics larger than cellphones in carry-on bags on commercial airplanes. Norton said without congressional oversight federal agencies are flying blind on this dangerous issue, which could bring down an airplane.

Mortgage applications increased 7.1 percent from one week earlier, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association's (MBA) Weekly Mortgage Applications Survey for the week ending June 2, 2017. This week's results included an adjustment for the Memorial Day holiday.

Independent mortgage banks and mortgage subsidiaries of chartered banks reported a net gain of $224 on each loan they originated in the first quarter of 2017, down from a reported gain of $575 per loan in the fourth quarter of 2016, the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) reported today in its Quarterly Mortgage Bankers Performance Report

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), which represents the solar industry nationwide, welcomed the Nevada Legislature’s passage of two bills that would expand access to affordable solar energy to all Nevada residents. State lawmakers passed a measure (SB 392) that, if enacted, will establish a statewide community solar program. Yesterday, they also approved a bill (AB 206) that would raise the state’s renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and require power companies to produce at least 40 percent of their electricity with renewables by 2030

One-fifth of surveyed Realtors® practicing in commercial real estate closed a sale with an international client in 2016, and as foreign investors flock to smaller-sized commercial properties in secondary and tertiary markets, many Realtors® are confident that increased sales and leasing activity will occur in 2017.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) last week held a housing forum, "A New Era of Homeownership," to mark the beginning of National Homeownership Month, as declared by President Trump in May. The social and financial benefits of homeownership for Americans and the economy was a common thread throughout the entire forum