Federal Reserve announces nationwide Land Bank

The Federal Reserve this morning announced that all vacant and underutilized properties in towns and cities across America will be placed in a nationwide Land Bank, for bid to those wishing to build affordable housing.

Community developers, builders, municipalities, and individuals will be eligible to draw land from the bank if they have plans that include permanently affordable housing. A Federal Reserve official said the program should end the nation’s problems with housing affordability for all income groups. The policy was easy, the official said: Getting the land into the vault was much harder.