(RECAP: A Washington, D.C., architecture firm will pitch a plot to transform downtown Newport News anchored on a ferry pier, parks, new streetscapes and clusters of housing it is calling downtown villages. The thought is to woo millennials to an area now largely devoted to parking lots for the shipyard, a handful of government buildings and aging, often empty commercial buildings. The architects said their vision for downtown includes low-rise and mid-rise housing, stores, restaurants and bars, as well as space for artists and high tech startups to build up the area’s “unique industrial character.”)

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(RECAP: The CFPB has posted its 2017 final lists of Rural and Rural or Underserved Counties on its website. The CFPB has previously posted lists of such counties for calendar years 2011-2016. The lists are relevant to exemptions in several CFPB mortgage rules, including the CFPB’s rule requiring creditors to establish escrow accounts for certain first-lien higher-priced mortgages.)

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(RECAP: For the past decade, most of the discussion on affordable housing needs in Virginia has focused on our cities and suburbs with growing populations and rapidly increasing housing costs. Surrounding these metro areas, but, are rural communities struggling with a unique set of housing challenges. Like the rest of rural America, most of Virginia’s rural regions are no longer growing. Between 2000 and 2010, rural areas accounted for only 6 percent of the state’s population growth. And over the next decade, more than 90 percent of Virginia’s population growth will occur in the “Golden Crescent” that extends from Northern Virginia, through Richmond, and east to Hampton Roads. Considering these trends it is not surprising that rural housing issues have failed to receive the attention they deserve. We need to ensure that the rural housing crisis is not a silent crisis, but is instead one that we make a priority and work together to solve.)

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