Doug Foster
Measure Twice, Cut Once
I stumbled onto a research paper I wrote with Mark Duda in 2006/2007 for NeighborWorks America. It was striking how much our current economic situation and housing market has in common as it did in the mid 2000s.
I'll offer some thoughts about our affordability study and how it is relevant today.
There is, and I believe there always will be, a gap in what large Business Intelligence (BI) and reporting software systems can provide to serve the needs of business professionals.
A BI system and a white-glove "pushed" reporting system should be seen as complementary and part of a holistic approach to providing business intelligence to your team.
On December 17, South Nyack residents will make a monumental decision about starting the process to dissolve the village..Unless I’m missing something, the public discussion has not given a clear road map on how to move forward, in particular to an option that many people would like to consider, but has not been part of …
It’s 2018, a new year. I have a lot of possible resolutions for the Village. One big one is to have the Village take over maintenance of the sidewalks. It is crazy that every homeowner needs to pay for their sidewalks. Other communities have done this, and it works well, and ends up being quite …
This was published in Nyack News and Views on Dec 22, 2017. In the last eight years, we have been able to achieve so much, and perhaps no part of Nyack has benefited more than our waterfront. Reconnecting Nyack with the Hudson River has been a passion of mine, and we are well on our …
In 2011, the Village Board began an ambitious road rebuilding program. We are five years into the effort and are nearing the end of the rebuild stage, and will settle into maintaining a road system in good condition. When I came into office in 2010, the Village was in trouble financially, and its roads were …
Yes, we did it! I want to thank everyone who was so helpful in the campaign. Special thanks to Joseph Rand, Heidi Broecking, Bill Capowski, and of course my wife, Rosemary Serluca-Foster. I look forward to serving Nyack another two years as Trustee. This has been a spirited campaign, and I am thankful that our …
From the moment I saw you And felt your beautiful energy My life changed forever And by the end of our first, magical evening In the soft rain of the Village streets I knew I would share my heart with you. My life changed because I found a partner Who sees who I …
Such a strange dance we have; the other creatures in the woods shake their heads in disbelief.
I shall wait for now, as hard as it is.
A poem I wrote for my dear friends Akka and Clara who were married on Aug 23, 2013
Twice every day at Monument Valley there is a modern day sun ritual where people watch the sun rise in the morning and set at night. Despite the touristy atmosphere in general, those who get up before 5am just to watch the morning sky over the three iconic buttes show a great reverence to Mother …
Hey bud! You had a huge influence on me growing up. When I was a kid, I thought you were so cool.My love of music (all sorts: jazz, classical, rock, etc.) comes directly from seeing your passion for it, listening to your old albums and making tapes of your diverse collection. Because of you, I …
Why must I wait so? I stand here in the garden, in a sea of color, awaiting my passion. I see others around, content where they are. I feel as if they are watching me, knowing that I am not whole, that I need to be reunited. Pacing around the flowers, studying them, I am …
Published in Nyack News and Views HERE ———– I would like to speak about the proposed administrator position, why I support it, and why I will not be applying for the job. Nyack is at a crossroads. We can have a dark future with years of stagnation, disinvestment and large tax increases. Alternatively, Nyack can …
The Village of Nyack is rich with assets such as our vibrant downtown, scenic waterfront, diverse residents, strong sense of community, and a wonderful mix of residential, commercial and institutional development. Unfortunately, over the decades the Village has developed a structural deficit, where our tiny, balkanized tax base is unable to sustain our assets. The …
Most of you know that I’m the youngest, by far, of the children. Dad was 40 years old when I was born, just after the mid point of his life. I’m the only one in the family to grow up in Birmingham, Michigan, where Dad got his last job as general counsel for ExCello Corporation. …
I rarely accept the marriage proposal Whispered from the Divine A proposal asked over and over again The few times I allow myself to hear it, There is a chance that I may, in a fit of insanity, say yes. But when I return to my little world To make the preparations I forget the …
I ask you to sign your name It’s not just a contract It is the result of my desire to give you an unconditional love For me this is a big step To stop hedging my bets Keeping my options open Love is not something to do half-way To contain It is the ocean with …
Modular housing has come a long way, and Nyack has seen several go up in the last couple of years. Today a house was put into place, as you might have noticed one of its five sections being trucked through our streets (hard to miss). Helen Ingalls, the proud owner of the new house, watched …
This paper addresses the first issue. It develops a housing market typology based on affordability into which markets can be sorted, and to which homeownership policy approaches can be matched. The paper unfolds in several steps. It begins by deconstructing housing affordability into three elements — house prices, incomes and mortgage costs — and reviewing recent changes in each. It then looks at the performance of house price indexes over the past decade, explaining why they tend to show only small affordability declines despite substantial changes in house price. Following this, the paper examines affordability conditions for low- and moderate-income families in 127 housing markets using two measures: the change in affordability-index values and the gap between the maximum mortgage a household can afford and the amount required to purchase a modest home. Based on these results, we develop an affordability-based typology of market types that can be linked to policy interventions designed to promote homeownership attainment in each type of market.
