The Latest from CommunityScale
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Introducing the Housing Forecast app
Every community has a housing story, but the data to tell it has always been scattered across half a dozen sources, each with its own geography, release schedule, and format. CommunityScale built Housing Forecast…
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Will County, IL Housing Study
One of the fastest-growing counties on the southwest side of the Chicago metro area, Will County needs housing that keeps pace with its communities and strengthens its competitive economic position. CommunityScale is leading a…
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Mapping exposure to AI workforce disruption
Anthropic recently published research introducing a new measure of how artificial intelligence is affecting the labor market, asking which jobs are actually being changed by AI today rather than which ones theoretically could be.…
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Housing for the 21st Century Act & ROAD to Housing Act
Congress is advancing the most significant federal housing legislation in decades. Two major bills, the Housing for the 21st Century Act and the ROAD to Housing Act, are moving through the House and Senate…
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Bayesian exploration of housing unit counts
In this guest post, Bowdoin College senior Avery Cutler explores US housing unit growth from 2020 to 2025 using Bayesian regression to identify which demographic and economic factors predict county-level change. Working from a…
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Catawba, SC Regional Workforce Housing Study
CommunityScale is leading a Regional Workforce Housing Study for the Catawba Regional Council of Governments in South Carolina, spanning Chester, Lancaster, Union, and York Counties along the state’s northern border within the Charlotte metro’s…
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How filtering helps with affordability
In nearly every community CommunityScale works with, someone asks a fair question: if new housing is so expensive, how can building more of it help people who cannot afford it? A new apartment renting…
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Corporate ownership of single-family homes
While leading a Housing Needs and Workforce Housing Assessment for Matteson, Illinois, a suburb south of Chicago, CommunityScale noticed that many single-family homes in the town’s parcel data listed LLCs as their owners, a…
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Notable trends in the 2024 ACS data release
The Census Bureau’s 2024 American Community Survey is out, and it carries important signals about housing and demographics across the country. This post highlights the trends CommunityScale found most notable in the new release,…
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Three phases of local housing action
Communities across the country are confronting housing challenges that can feel urgent, complex, and overwhelming. Through work with dozens of municipalities and regions, CommunityScale has observed that communities typically move through three phases as…
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Central Massachusetts Regional Housing and Transportation Study
CommunityScale and Toole Design led a study focused on the relationships between housing and transportation across the Central Massachusetts region, spanning from the urban center in Worcester to the surrounding suburbs and rural towns.…
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Rolling out new State-required multifamily zoning
In 2021 Massachusetts adopted the MBTA Communities Act, requiring 177 municipalities to permit by-right multifamily zoning near transit, a mandate notable for compelling communities to change their codes rather than simply offering incentives. CommunityScale…
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Minneapolis-St Paul Regional Housing Nexus Study
The Twin Cities region needed a defensible analytical foundation to help its cities and townships adopt and update local inclusionary housing ordinances. CommunityScale completed a region-wide housing nexus study for the Metropolitan Council that…
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Johnson County, IA Housing Assessment Study
CommunityScale completed a non-metro housing strategy for the small cities, villages, and unincorporated areas of Johnson County, IA. The project included extensive data analysis, housing needs assessment, strategies toolkit, and actionable implementation plan. Recommendations…
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City of Pueblo Consolidated Plan and Fair Housing Analysis
To guide its use of federal Community Development Block Grant and HOME Investment Partnerships funding, the City of Pueblo, Colorado needed a clear, equity-focused strategy. CommunityScale partnered with the City to develop a comprehensive…
