Urban Grand Rapids

Some maps flew around social media of housing costs by county. Those maps used the Median MLS Listing Price divided by the county's median income to calculate the years-to-buy metric. The years-to-buy metric is a common way to correlate housing prices to regional income. Unfortunately the low granularity of county level data hides a great deal of variability.

The ZORI

The ZORI is the Zillow Observed Rent Index. Zillow provides a variety of data at their Data page.

Related:

• Where rent is most, least affordable in Michigan, MLIVE 2023-06-24

  Kent: With an average rent of $1,326, a renter would need to make at least $25.50 per hour or $53,040 annually. 
  

What is affordable housing? What is "A"ffordable housing?

UPDATE: The developer has pulled out, this project is dead.

The McConnell is a conceptual proposal for a market rate 10 story mixed-use development at the McConnell Silver Line BRT station. The principle structure would be seated behind the fueling station at Wealth & Division. If constructed the McConnell would be Grand Rapids' first Transit Oriented Development (TOD).

The candidates for City Commission in 2022.

Shelterforce recently developed a six part series on ADUs (Accessory Dwelling Units). While there is currently no hope of meaningful zoning reform in Grand Rapids, MI I believe this remains a critical topic to track as ADUs should be the clearest path for residents to invest in their own neighborhoods - right on their own property.

Mobility and transportation related meetings for 2022.

It appears that the RAPID board meetings are hybrid, available via Zoom. Not sure about the Consumer Advisory Committee. MobileGR meetings are not available online.