A new ordinance in Howard County, Maryland, requires

A new ordinance in Howard County, Maryland, requires developers to set aside a portion of their housing production for moderate-income families. The first beneficiaries of the ordinance are nine families that were allowed to buy townhouses for half the usual $240,000 price. The winners were chosen in a county-sponsored lottery. From 1997 to 2001 the median house price in Howard, Maryland’s wealthiest county, rose 27 percent, to $236,421. Howard County’s program is similar to a long-established policy in neighboring Montgomery County. The Washington Post reported November 23 that Montgomery is also looking at ways to acquire land or to turn parcels it already owns, such as vacant parking lots and unused schools, into housing. Maryland isn’t alone. In a Page One article November 4, The New York Times reported, “The house-price boom — concentrated in the Northeast and California — is also creating significant new social divisions in the metropolitan areas affected, separating younger families from older ones and making some towns less diverse.”