Wood is, by far, the most common material used in the U.S. for single-family-home construction.
But wood construction isnt engineered for long-term durability, and it often underperforms, particularly in the face of increasingly common extreme weather events.
In response to these challenges, I believe mass-produced concrete homes can offer affordable, resilient housing in the U.S. By leveraging the latest innovations of the precast concrete industry, this type of homebuilding can meet the needs of a changing world.
Woods rise to power
Over 90% of the new homes built in the U.S. rely on wood framing.
Wood has deep historical roots as a building material in the U.S., dating back to the earliest European settlers who constructed shelters using the abundant native timber. One of the most recognizable typologies was the log cabin, built from large tree trunks notched at the corners for structural stability.
In the 1830s, wood construction underwent a significant shift with the introduction of balloon framing. This system used standardized, sawed lumber and mass-produced nails, allowing much smaller wood components to replace the earlier heavy timber frames. It could be assembled by unskilled labor using simple tools, making it both accessible and economical.
In the early 20th century, balloon framing evolved into platform framing, which became the dominant method. By using shorter lumber lengths, platform framing allowed each floor to be built as a separate working platform, simplifying construction and improving its efficiency.
The proliferation and evolution of wood construction helped shape the architectural and cultural identity of the nation. For centuries, wood-framed houses have defined the American idea of homeso much so that even today, when Americans imagine a house, they typically envision one built of wood.
Today, light-frame wood construction dominates the U.S. residential market.
Wood is relatively affordable and readily available, offering a cost-effective solution for homebuilding. Contractors are familiar with wood construction techniques. In addition, building codes and regulations have long been tailored to wood-frame systems, further reinforcing their prevalence in the housing industry.
Despite its advantages, wood light-frame construction presents several important limitations. Wood is vulnerable to fire. And in hurricane- and tornado-prone regions, wood-framed homes can be damaged or destroyed.
Wood is also highly susceptible to water-related issues, such as swelling, warping, and structural deterioration caused by leaks or flooding. Vulnerability to termites, mold, rot, and mildew further compromise the longevity and safety of wood-framed structures, especially in humid or poorly ventilated environments.
A modular, precast system of concrete rings can be connected in different ways to build a range of models of energy-efficient homes. [Image: Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA]
The case for concrete
Meanwhile, concrete has revolutionized architecture and engineering over the past century. In my academic work, Ive studied, written, and taught about the materials many advantages.
The material offers unmatched strength and durability, while also allowing design flexibility and versatility. Its low-cost and low-maintenance, and it has high thermal mass properties, which refers to the materials ability to absorb and store heat during the day, and slowly release it during the cooler nights. This can lower heating and cooling costs.
Properly designed concrete enclosures offer exceptional performance against a wide range of hazards. Concrete can withstand fire, flooding, mold, insect infestation, earthquakes, hail, hurricanes, and tornadoes.
Its commonly used for home construction in many parts of the world, such as Europe, Japan, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina, as well as India and other parts of Southeast Asia.
However, despite their multiple benefits, concrete single-family homes are rare in the U.S.
Thats because most concrete structures are built using a process called cast-in-place. In this technique, the concrete is formed and poured directly at the construction site. The method relies on built-in-place molds. After the concrete is cast and cured over several days, the formwork is removed.
This process is labor-intensive and time-consuming, and it often produces considerable waste. This is particularly an issue in the U.S., where labor is more expensive than in other parts of the world. The material and labor cost can be as high as 35% to 60% of the total construction cost.
Portland cement, the binding agent in concrete, requires significant energy to produce, resulting in considerable carbon dioxide emissions. However, this environmental cost is often offset by concretes durability and long service life.
Concretes design flexibility and structural integrity make it particularly effective for large-scale structures. So in the U.S., youll see it used for large commercial buildings, skyscrapers and most highways, bridges, dams, and other critical infrastructure projects.
But when it comes to single-family homes, cast-in-place concrete poses challenges to contractors. There are the higher initial construction costs, along with a lack of subcontractor expertise. For these reasons, most builders and cntractors stick with what they know: the wood frame.
A new model for home construction
Precast concrete, however, offers a promising alternative.
Unlike cast-in-place concrete, precast systems allow for off-site manufacturing under controlled conditions. This improves the quality of the structure, while also reducing waste and labor.
The CRETE House, a prototype I worked on in 2017 alongside a team at Washington University in St. Louis, showed the advantages of a precast home construction.
To build the precast concrete home, we used ultra-high-performance concrete, one of the latest advances in the concrete industry. Compared with conventional concrete, its about six times stronger, virtually impermeable, and more resistant to freeze-thaw cycles. Ultra-high-performance concrete can last several hundred years.
The strength of the CRETE House was tested by shooting a piece of wood at 120 mph to simulate flying debris from an F5 tornado. It was unable to breach the wall, which was only 2 inches thick.
Building on the success of the CRETE House, I designed the Compact House as a solution for affordable, resilient housing. The house consists of a modular, precast concrete system of rings that can be connected to form the entire structurefloors, walls, and roofscreating airtight, energy-efficient homes. A series of different rings can be chosen from a catalog to deliver different models that can range in size from 270 to 990 square feet.
The precast rings can be transported on flatbed trailers and assembled into a unit in a single day, drastically reducing on-site labor, time, and cost.
Since theyre built using durable concrete forms, the house can be easily mass-produced. When precast concrete homes are mass-produced, the cost can be competitive with traditional wood-framed homes. Furthermore, the homes are designed to last far beyond 100 years (much longer than typical wood structures) while significantly lowering utility bills, maintenance expenses, and insurance premiums.
The project is also envisioned as an open-source design. This means that the molds, which are expensive, are available for any precast producer to use and modify.
The Compact House is made using ultra-high-performance concrete. [Image: Pablo Moyano Fernández, CC BY-SA]
Leveraging a network thats already in place
Two key limitations of precast concrete construction are the size and weight of the components and the distance to the project site.
Precast elements must comply with standard transportation regulations, which impose restrictions on both size and weight in order to pass under bridges and prevent road damage. As a result, components are typically limited to dimensions that can be safely and legally transported by truck. Each of the Compact Houses pieces are small enough to be transported in standard trailers.
Additionally, transportation costs become a major factor beyond a certain range. In general, the practical delivery radius from a precast plant to a construction site is 500 miles. Anything beyond that becomes economically unfeasible.
However, the infrastructure to build precast concrete homes is already largely in place. Since precast concrete is often used for office buildings, schools, parking complexes, and large apartments buildings, theres already an extensive national network of manufacturing plants capable of producing and delivering components within that 500-mile radius.
There are other approaches to build homes with concrete: Homes can use concrete masonry units, which are similar to cinder blocks. This is a common technique around the world. Insulated concrete forms involve rigid foam blocks that are stacked like Lego bricks and are then filled with poured concrete, creating a structure with built-in insulation. And theres even 3D-printed concrete, a rapidly evolving technology that is in its early stages of development.
However, none of these use precast concrete modules (the rings in my prototypes), and therefore require substantially longer on-site time and labor.
To me, precast concrete homes offer a compelling vision for the future of affordable housing. They signal a generational shift away from short-term construction and toward long-term valueredefining what it means to build for resilience, efficiency, and equity in housing.
This article is part of a series centered on envisioning ways to deal with the housing crisis.
Pablo Moyano Fernández is an assistant professor of architecture at Washington University in St. Louis.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Workplaces in the United States are remarkably conflict averse. Many people dont even like to give criticisms to someone else directly, let alone to hash out a disagreement over a path forward or address a conflict of values.
As a result, we kick many conflicts down the road in ways that create problems. We lead people to believe we agree with them when we dont and we fail to address small concerns early on, when they can be fixed. This failure to act can turn a molehill into a mountain.
That said, it is not always good to engage conflict directly or immediately. Here’s what you can do to make those conversations productive.
Let the heat die down
When you first become aware of a conflict, there is often an emotional reaction that goes along with any contradiction or disagreement that you may recognize cognitively. This duality to a conflict reflects the distinction made in psychology between hot (that is emotional) states and cool (that is cognitive) states.
A strong emotional reaction comes along with energy. That energy drives you to want to act. Unfortunately, when the energy level is quite high, you may act without reflecting deeply on what youre doing.
In order to make your disagreements as productive as possible, it is best to wait for any initial energy associated with the disagreement to subside. That way, you can focus your discussions on having a good give and take. In addition, it can be valuable to take the time to think through both what you want to say to someone else as well as what youre hoping to accomplish from the interaction.
What is there to be gained?
Addressing conflict is inherently difficult. It is hard to do, and it can put strain on a relationship in the short-term. So, there has to be some benefit to going through the process. When youre exploring whether to engage directly with someone about a disagreement, you want to highlight what you hope to gain from the conversation.
Start by highlighting your ideal end state. Are you trying to make someone else aware of a problem they might not know about? Are you trying to influence someones behavior? Are you trying to change a decision that was made in the past?
Once you have a sense of what youd like to accomplish, you can then plan a structure for the conversation to help you reach that goal. Part of that plan involves finding a way to tell the individual youll be talking with what you want. That is, the ideal conversation around a conflict is not one that just highlights that there is a problem, but also charts a path forward.
It is important to bring a constructive mindset to difficult conversations. You may not know what the solution to a problem is, but you should plan to explore potential solutions. You can ask others for help generating ideas. If you are raising a problem with someone for the first time, it is also possible this discussion may catch them by surprise (or even lead to an emotional response). So, be prepared to schedule another time to talk later when the other party is ready to explore solutions.
Be open
When you initiate a conversation around a difficult topic, you know your side of the story. You also have your sense of what youre hoping to accomplish.
You are probably missing key information as well. Thats one reason why you want to have a conversation. In order to make it a true discussion, though, you have to be willing to learn and potentially change your mind as a result of what you hear.
That openness can be difficult. Conflicts can lead to a sense that you have to win the discussion by bringing the other person over to your way of thinking about things. The goal of a difficult conversation isnt to win. It is to reach an accommodation to address the source of the conflict. That solution is likely to involve compromise on your part. You should prepare yourself mentally that youre not going to get everything you want before the discussion starts, so that you dont dig your heels in and get in the way of a path forward.
Following decades of population loss, Detroit may finally be turning a corner.
According to the U.S. Census Bureaus most recent estimates, the city saw an increase in population for both 2023 and 2024.
An additional 11,000 people moved into the city in the years 2023 and 2024, a small gain in a city with a population of 645,705but one which marked a symbolic shift.
The census data shows just over 1% growth in the past year alone and 0.7% the year before compared with a nearly 25% loss between 2000 and 2010.
As an urban sociologist studying issues related to race and ethnicity, I am interested in how Detroits population is changing, and where different groups live in both the city and its suburbs.
Analyzing population trends in the metro Detroit area using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, I wanted to understand how racial, ethnic and socioeconomic trends are unfolding, and what those changes can tell us about the evolution and vitality of Detroit.
Black Detroiters relocate, city diversifies
From 2010 to 2023, Detroits racial and ethnic makeup continued to gradually diversify even as the city was declining in population.
While Black residents are still the majority, their proportion of the total number fell from around 84% to 79%.
Other groups, in contrast, increased their share of the citys population. Between 2010 and 2023, the percentage of Hispanic residents grew from 6.6% to 8.3%, the percentage of white residents grew from 8.2% to 10.7%, and the percentage of Asian residents grew from 1.3% to 1.7%.
These shifts reflect a steady and ongoing diversification of Detroits population, indicative of new migration trends and shifting neighborhood dynamics.
A map of Detroit and the surrounding suburbs, with shading to indicate which areas are considered to be the inner and outer suburbs.
Suburbs in flux
In addition to Detroits recent population growth, a broader story is unfolding in the citys suburbs.
The population of the suburban area as a whole increased 0.73% from 2023 to 2024, but growth was not evenly spread. Collectively, the outer-ring suburbs gained almost 20,000 people, increasing by 1%. Communities such as the city of Troy and Macomb Township accounted for a significant share of that growth.
Inner-ring suburbs, such as Southfield, Warren and others, grew less vigorously gaining just 4,000 people, or 0.31%.
These differences highlight the necessity of complicating the conventional city-versus-suburb narrative to acknowledge the many economic and racial divisions across the metropolitan region.
The socioeconomic statuses of residents of the inner- and outer-ring suburbs diverged between 2000 and 2020.
My analysis of census data shows that although both subregions witnessed increases in median household incomes, the rates of change were significantly higher in the outer-ring suburbs, with a 37.7% increase versus a 16.8% increase in the inner rings.
The data shows a similar trend in higher education attainment. Outer ring suburbs gained 7.1% more residents with college degrees or higher during this period, while the inner suburbs lost 7.5%.
Homeownership patterns in the two suburban regions also diverged over those two decades, increasing 18% in the outer rings and decreasing 10% in the inner rings.
The data on poverty and immigration also reveal contrasting results.
According to my calculations of census data, inner-ring suburbs experienced a 77% increase in poverty, while the outer ring experienced a lesser, though considerable, 50.8% bump in poverty during the 2000-2020 period.
Meanwhile, during the same time period, the foreign-born populations in the outer suburbs expanded by 24.9%, with increases of at least 10,000 in places such as Sterling Heights, Novi and Canton. In contrast, the inner suburbs saw more modest gainsaround 5,000 in cities such as Dearborn Heights and Warrenwhile their overall foreign-born share declined by nearly 20%.
Together, the above trends highlight the necessity of not viewing the suburban area as a monolith. These patterns reflect national trends, in which many older, inner-ring suburbs are experiencing socioeconomic stagnation or decline while newer, outer-ring suburbs continue to attract more people who have higher incomes.
Mixed neighborhoods grow
Residential segregation also differentiates inner and outer suburban rings.
Segregation levels remain high in the inner suburbs, especially between white and Black residents. While outer suburbs tend to be more integrated today, the rate of change there has been more modest over the past two decades.
Social scientists measure segregation using a tool called the dissimilarity index. The index represents the proportion of one group that would need to move to establish an equal distribution of the population based on their relative numbers. It ranges from 0 to 100. A score of 0 means equal distribution across neighborhoods, while a score of 100 means the two groups live in completely separate areas.
From 2000 to 2020, white-Black segregation across the region decreased from 84.4% to 68.3% on the index, while white-Hispanic segregation decreased from 47.6% to 39.9%. Together, these numbers indicate a broader trend toward more integrated living patterns.
In the inner-ring suburbs, segregation fell across the board. White-Black segregation went down by 15.6%; white-Asian and white-Hispanic segregation dropped even more, by 43.2% and 30.7%, respectively.
These trends suggest that while the outer suburbs currently have lower levels of segregation, the inner suburbs are integrating more rapidly, reflecting shifting patterns of neighborhood change and increasing racial and ethnic diversity.
Detroit has come a long way since exiting bankruptcy in 2014. Its recent population growth and increasing diversity show important signs of renewal.
Grigoris Argeros is a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
At my house, theres an ongoing countdownmy three daughters are eagerly ticking off the days until schools out. Theyre dreaming about camp, late nights outside, and long days filled with play. As a mom, I love their excitement and I know how important this time is for their health and physical development. Im reminded at work that play shouldnt be viewed as a luxury, but an essential.
At UNICEF, we know health, education, and protection from harm are foundational rights for every child. But it may be surprising how important play is in that equation. Research shows that when children have time and space to play, theyre not only happiertheyre healthier, more focused in school, and more likely to thrive long term. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that doctors actually prescribe play, recognizing its impact on brain development and emotional well-being.
Create spaces for children to be children
The lack of access to safe play areas, particularly children living in conflict zones, puts them at a disadvantage. To address this issue, UNICEF promotes physical activity and creates safe environments dedicated to play to ensure the health and well-being of children around the world.
Conflict and disasters are not only disorienting and traumatizing, but they often uproot children from their homes and rob them of opportunities to just be kids. In emergencies, UNICEF responds with medicine and humanitarian supplies, and works to set up child-friendly spaces too. A child-friendly space allows children in crisis to focus on being kids. Play creates a sense of desperately needed normalcy and goes a long way toward minimizing the effects of trauma.
Often when faced with a crisis, children are cut off from school. In these instances, a UNICEF child-friendly space will also serve as a temporary classroom or informal learning space. For many children who might never find their way back to school, these child-friendly spaces continue to offer basic education to keep those children learning.
Play isnt a privilege, its a childs right
When kids engage in play, they experiment with invention, boost creativity, enhance language and critical thinking abilities, and forge friendships. These skills are critical as they get older, and the lessons learned from play translate to the workforce.
The benefits reaped from play are so important that, last year, the United Nations established a day focused solely to the power of play. On June 11, International Day of Play was dedicated to celebrating the power of play and its central role in a childs development. In addition to acknowledging the importance of play, UNICEF and other organizations are leveraging this moment as a call to action for governments, businesses, and other stakeholders to scale up services that promote play, enable access to preschool and learning through play for three- to six-year-olds, and ensure every child has access to safe, inclusive, and well-maintained play areas.
What starts on the playground also shapes the future
Play is more than just funits how children build the skills theyll carry into adulthood. Through play, kids learn to solve problems, collaborate, think creatively, and build confidenceskills theyll need not just in school, but as the workforce of tomorrow.
Thats why play doesnt lose its value as we grow older. At work, my team carries big responsibilities, but Ive seen how making space for playeven in small waysstrengthens our ability to connect, think differently, and lead with resilience. Play in the workplace isnt frivolousits foundational.
So now, as summer begins and our kids head into long days of play, wed do well to remember: What starts on the playground doesnt stay there. It shapes how we grow, how we work, and the kind of world we want to build.
Thats why UNICEF works around the world to protect every childs right to playbecause play isnt a privilege. Its essential for healthy development, learning, and healing.
Michele Walsh is executive vice president and chief philanthropy officer of UNICEF USA.
In 2019, I joined a group of entrepreneurial women with one bold goal: to create the only bank in the country strategically built to close the gender lending gap. That vision became First Womens Bank.
We were motivated by the numbers, and the opportunity to drive change. Women are transforming the economy in this country, owning over 14 million businesses representing 39% of all businesses, employing over 12 million people and generating $2.7 trillion. But despite this momentum, women are still not accessing the capital at equal rates as men. Women receive just 16% of commercial bank loansand only 4.4% of total dollars lent in the small business economy.
That is the gender lending gap. It is layered. It is complex. But it is also highly addressable. Every business owner is unique, so we dont paint all women-owned businesses with a broad brush. But when you look at the data, a few patterns emerge.
Understand the financing options
First, many women simply arent connecting with the right forms of commercial capital.
We often see women over-relying on personal credit tools when starting out, and sometimes throughout the life of their business. That might mean using credit cards, personal savings, or home equity lines to keep the business afloat. While resourceful, this approach is also limiting, and it can hurt their ability to qualify for commercial debt financing down the line.
At the other end of the spectrum, we see women running high performing, growing firms turning to equity financing to fund expansion. Sometimes, depending on the industry or the companys life stage, thats the right call. But in many cases, it isnt. Some women may not be aware of their other options or realize that a competitively priced commercial loan can be a more cost-effective way to finance growth.
This has real consequences. Studies show that on average, women founders retain just 48 cents of equity for every $1 retained by male business owners. Think about that: Women are overcoming obstacles, building successful companies, and then only owning half of their own success. We believe that needs to change.
Our goal is to connect with women earlier in their business journey. Were encouraging them to think about commercial financing not just as a last resort, but as a strategic tool for growth.
Education and outreach
Over the years, weve also seen that women feel left behind in the lending process. They want to make informed financial decisions, but when the information or guidance isnt accessible, they get discouraged and disconnect from the process entirely.
Imagine the potential if women could double or triple their access to capital, the ripple effect across jobs, communities, would be transformationalnot just for women, but for the entire U.S. economy.
So, we rolled up our sleeves. We strategized, we led, and we built. Over two years, we raised nearly $40 millionthe most ever raised by a startup bank in Illinois. We launched in 2021 with a simple mission: to grow the economy by elevating the role of women within it. And from the start, investors and partners saw the power in what we were doing. Our success is rooted in that clarity of purpose.
It takes a village
But from the beginning, we knew we werent going to do this alone. It takes a village.
Our ability to lend and support women-owned businesses is powered by deposits, and weve been fortunate to partner with some of the largest and most respected companies in the country. These organizations support First Womens Bank by holding zero interest deposits with us, creating real impact with their cash. The corporate mission partnerships are a concrete way for companies to bank with their values, support gender equity, and strengthen financial inclusion.
We also knew we needed the right advocates at the table, leaders who could help amplify our mission on a national level. Thats why we created our Strategic Advisory Board, made up of lifelong champions of equality who have helped bring national attention to the power and potential of the womens economy. Billie Jean King, Sophia Bush, Nia Batts, Allyson Felix, and Wes Felix have all been instrumental in our journey.
The solution is layered
So, while the gender lending gap has many causes, it also has clear solutions.
It starts with access. It grows through education. It scales through capital. And it thrives through partnership.
This work is deeply personal to me. Throughout my career, Ive seen how often women are underestimated and how often we underestimate ourselves. Ive also seen what happens when women access the tools, the capital, and the support they need: They thrive, they lift others, and they transform communities. Thats why Im here. Thats why this bank exists. And when women rise, we all rise.
Marianne Markowitz is president and CEO of First Women’s Bank.
Indoor toilets were once considered a health hazard. Electric lighting sparked fears of deadly fires. Air conditioning was dismissed as an unnatural threat to human health. It seems absurd now, but each of these technologiesnow fundamental to modern buildingswas initially met with widespread skepticism and resistance.
Today, we’re seeing history repeat itself with water reuse. As the United States grapples with an escalating water crisis, a powerful solution is gaining momentum. Buildings can intelligently capture, treat, and reuse their own wastewater by leveraging advanced technology, data analytics, and automation to optimize every step of the water reuse process. These smart systems continuously monitor water quality and usage, automatically adjusting treatment processes to ensure safety and efficiency. While current regulations limit this recycled water to non-potable applications, the reality is that water from these systems is often treated to a level that is scientifically safe enough to drink. This isnt about compromiseits about building smarter, managing water as a circular resource, and using it where its needed most, all within the building itself.
This innovation comes at a critical moment. Nearly 45% of the lower 48 states are currently experiencing drought conditions, with the Southwest and Plains regions particularly hard-hit. Major water systems like the Colorado River and Lake Mead face unprecedented strain, while aquifers supplying 90% of U.S. water systems are depleting at alarming rates. Climate change only compounds these challenges by intensifying evaporation and disrupting weather patterns, leading to both extreme droughts and devastating floods.At the same time, water and sewer rates are skyrocketing as municipalities invest billions to upgrade aging infrastructure and manage dwindling supplies. For buildings, this translates into rising operational costs and growing pressure to adopt more resilient, cost-effective solutions.
Against this backdrop, onsite water reuse represents not just an innovative approach but an increasingly necessary one. And predictably, some people may feel uneasy with onsite water reuse, mostly because of perception, unfamiliarity, and the natural human tendency to be cautious about new technologies, especially those involving health and safety. But history shows us that discomfort is often just the first chapter in a story that ends with “How did we ever live without this?”
The path from rejection to necessity
History keeps repeating itself when it comes to building innovation. Take indoor plumbingpeople fought against it tooth and nail in the 1800s. Public health officials, guided by the now-debunked miasma theorythe belief that disease was spread by “bad air” rather than germsinsisted that human waste had to be kept outside the home. Ironically, their reliance on cesspools and open sewers only fueled the spread of deadly diseases like cholera and typhoid, which ravaged entire cities
Only as modern sewage systems developed and germ theory took hold did attitudes finally shift. Indoor toilets, once feared as harbingers of disease, gradually became celebrated as symbols of sanitation and progress. Today, their presence is so fundamental that we’ve collectively forgotten they were ever controversial at all.
Electric lighting faced similar resistance. Before it lit up our lives, it sparked public panic. Newspapers churned out stories about people getting electrocuted or going blind. The infamous War of the Currents between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla only heightened public anxiety, with Edison going so far as to publicly electrocute animals to paint Teslas alternating current (AC) as a deadly force. Yet within a generation, those same lights became the very symbol of human advancement. Resistance gave way to adoption, and eventually to total dependence.
Then there’s air conditioning. Doctors once warned it would make us soft and sickly. In the early 1950s, the National Association of Home Builders and the University of Texas partnered to create the Austin Air-Conditioned Villagea real neighborhood built to study how everyday families would adapt to living with air conditioning. Six homes were equipped with A/C, while others were left uncooled. Researchers tracked not just energy usage, but human behavior, comfort, and social response. Some participants worried about health effects, while others complained that the cooled air attracted scorpions and other desert pests. But over time, skepticism gave way to comfort, and the experiment helped lay the groundwork for widespread adoption. Now more than 90% of American homes have A/C, and places like Phoenix or Miami would lose millions of residents without it. What was once considered risky has become absolutely essential.
Water reuse is gaining popularity
Our centralized water infrastructure is showing its age. Pipes laid a century ago are failing. Treatment plants designed for consistent climate patterns are buckling under the pressure of intensifying droughts, floods, and wildfires. Meanwhile, commercial and residential buildings account for the majority of urban water useyet a significant portion of that demand is for non-potable applications like toilet flushing, irrigation, and cooling, which dont require pristine drinking water quality.
Onsite water reuse offers a compelling alternative. With todays technology, buildings and industry can recycle up to 95% of their wastewater. This approach strengthens sustainability, enhances resilience, and increasingly improves the bottom line. San Francisco has already made water reuse mandatory for larger developments. Other cities such as Los Angeles and Austin are creating incentives or updating building codes. Forward-thinking developers aren’t waiting for mandates; they’re embracing water reuse to meet sustainability commitments and future-proof their investments.
Still, old habits and perceptions persist. Some people instinctively recoil at the idea of treated wastewater, even when it’s used exclusively for non-potable purposes. But both the data and the historical pattern are clear about where we’re headed.
The lifecycle of transformative technology
Every transformative building technology follows a predictable journey:
First comes resistance: “You want me to put what inside my building?”
Then adoption: “Actually, this solves a real problem quite elegantly.”
Followed by mandates and markets: “New code requires it, and buyers expect it.”
Finally, normalization: “Remember when buildings didn’t have his?”
Onsite water reuse is already transitioning from the second to the third phaseand picking up speed. Soon enough, we’ll look back at the practice of flushing toilets with drinking water with the same bewilderment we now feel about houses without indoor plumbing. The real question isn’t whether onsite water reuse will become standard practice. It’s how quickly we can make the leap from outrageous to obvious.
Aaron Tartakovsky is the CEO and co-founder of Epic Cleantec.
I would argue that the most important indicator of a brands health is customer loyalty. For leaders, building and sustaining strong customer loyalty is the holy grail. Leaders talk a lot about how to win customer loyalty, and sometimes that could mean getting caught up in chasing the newest shiny object, silver bullet, or trend. To avoid that chase, I’ve made a point of rooting myself in an approach that sounds basic on the surface, but is truly transformative: making customers the true center of every decision. This isn’t a reactive strategy during tough timesit’s a proactive philosophy that builds resilience and clarity before you need it.
When you remain centered on prioritizing customer needs and experiences, you create a foundation of trust and understanding that fosters long-term loyalty.
The human connection in a digital world
Technology has improved access to customers in a lot of ways, but it has also created distance. I got to thinking about this after reading a recent LinkedIn post from my colleague Dennis Kozak, written after he toured colleges with his daughter. He said his daughter could sense which interactions felt authentic versus those that were rote, detached, and rehearsed.” These were in-person interactions, which should be immune to detachment. But weve all become so accustomed to digitally-driven detachment that it seems our interpersonal standards have shifted. The innate ability to detect authenticity isn’t limited to campus toursit’s fundamental to every interaction, especially customer interactions.
I am all for the efficiencies gained from AI chatbots, automated systems, and digital interfaces, yet there needs to be a balance between technology and the human element to effectively build true connections. When everyone uses the same technology solutions, genuine human engagement becomes your true differentiator. Demonstrating your ability to understand and connect is crucial in maintaining strong connections with others and is ultimately best left to people, not machines. These qualities foster loyalty, trust, and genuine relationships.
Use values as your customer compass
The principles that guide your personal decisions should extend to how you prioritize customer needs. I’ve found that grounding myself in integrity, authenticity, and teamwork creates a framework for customer-centric decision making.
Integrity means doing what’s right for customers, evenand especiallywhen facing tough choices and challenging times. Making customers central means that the choice becomes clear if you are making hard choices that prioritize their needs over short-term business interests. Every commitment represents an opportunity to demonstrate that you genuinely value their success as much as your own.
Authenticity kind of sounds like corporate buzz speak, but to me, its very real. It shows up as consistency between what you promise and what you deliver. Back on campus, Dennis said people can immediately tell which representatives were “passionate about the school and genuinely wanted her to be part of it versus those monotoning from a script while thinking about how soon they could be done with the conversation.”
Weve all had customer experiences where we felt like the person on the other side was just going through the motions, right? And I hope weve all had the opposite experience, too, when we truly felt seen and heard, like our experience mattered. What a difference!
See beyond immediate transactions
One great (or terrible) interaction can make or break a customer relationship, but the strongest customer relationships are built over time with consistent engagement. These bonds form when you demonstrate understanding beyond the immediate problem. For example, if a customer contacts your company because theyre frustrated about a glitch, its important to address the glitch. But its not just about the glitch. Its about the lost productivity, the time spent needing to find contact info and reach out, and concerns about whether they can trust the product in the future. What can you do about that?
Technology can actually enhance this understanding when applied thoughtfully. While AI raises legitimate concerns about depersonalization, I’ve found it can be an unexpected ally in customer centricity when used to augment rather than replace human judgment. By synthesizing different viewpoints from across the organization, we develop more effective responses that truly address customer needs when responding to complex situations. Technology can improve the functional aspects of customer experiences while humans address the intangible elements.
Humanize the digital experience
As technology continues to rise toward dominance, I think were at an inflection point: Do we allow digital efficiency to create emotional distance, or deliberately design human connection into every touchpoint?
This balance between humans and machines doesn’t happen accidentally. It requires deliberately designing customer journeys that incorporate genuine human touchpoints at pivotal momentsespecially during those times when trust is tested and either strengthened or broken.
When you put customer needs first in good times and in bad (not to sound like wedding vows here!), customers trust that their needs remain your priority, no matter what. These customers are so much more likely to ride out tough times with you and not only stay loyal to the company, but serve as vocal brand advocates who share their experience with others. Now that is the holy grail.
Melissa Puls is chief marketing officer and SVP of customer success and renewals of Ivanti.
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National home prices rose +0.5% year-over-year between May 2024 and May 2025, according to the Zillow Home Value Index reading published last weeka decelerated rate from the +3.9% year-over-year rate between May 2023 and May 2024.
And more metro area housing markets are seeing declines.
> 31 of the nations 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 10% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the January 2024 to January 2025 window.
> 42 of the nations 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 14% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the February 2024 to February 2025 window.
> 60 of the nations 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 20% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the March 2024 to March 2025 window.
> 80 of the nations 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 27% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the April 2024 to April 2025 window.
> 96 of the nations 300 largest housing markets (i.e., 32% of markets) had a falling year-over-year reading in the May 2024 to May 2025 window.
While 32% of the 300 largest housing markets are currently experiencing year-over-year home price declines, that share is gradually increasing as the supply-demand balance continues to shift directionally toward buyers in this affordability-constrained and post-housing boom environment.
Home prices are still climbing in many regions where active inventory remains well below pre-pandemic 2019 levels, such as pockets of the Northeast and Midwest. In contrast, some pockets in states like Arizona, Texas, Florida, Colorado, and Louisianawhere active inventory exceeds pre-pandemic 2019 levelsare seeing modest home price corrections.
Year-over-year home value declines, using the Zillow Home Value Index, are evident in major metros such as Austin (-5.5%); Tampa (-5.4%); Dallas (-3.4%); Phoenix (-3.4%); San Antonio (-3.3%); Orlando (-3.2%); Miami (-3.2%); Jacksonville, Florida (-3.0%); Atlanta (-2.7%); San Francisco (-2.5%); Denver (-2.4%); New Orleans (-2.3%); San Diego (-1.9%); Raleigh (-1.8%); Houston (-1.5%); Sacramento (-1.4%); Charlotte (-0.9%); Memphis (-0.9%); Riverside (-0.8%); Portland (-0.5%); Birmingham (-0.3%); and Seattle (-0.1%).
Click here for an interactive version of the chart below
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The markets seeing the most softness, where homebuyers have gained the most leverage, are primarily located in Sun Belt regions, particularly the Gulf Coast and Mountain West. Many of these areas saw major price surges during the Pandemic Housing Boom, with home price growth outpacing local income levels. As pandemic-driven domestic migration slowed and mortgage rates rose, markets like Tampa and Austin faced challenges, relying on local income levels to support frothy home prices. This softening trend is further compounded by an abundance of new home supply in the Sun Belt. Builders are often willing to lower prices or offer affordability incentives to maintain sales, which also has a cooling effect on the resale market. Some buyers, who would have previously considered existing homes, are now opting for new homes with more favorable deals.
Given the shift in active housing inventory and months of supply, along with the soft level of appreciation in more markets this spring, ResiClub expects the number of metro areas with year-over-year home price declines in the Zillow Home Value Index to continue ticking up in the coming months.
This softening and regional variation should not surprise ResiClub PRO membersweve been closely documenting it. ResiClub PRO members can view our latest analysis of home prices across +800 metros and +3,000 counties here.
Is it time to BeReal again?
In 2022, the photo-sharing app surged in popularity, won Apples App of the Year, and even earned its own SNL skit. Once a day, at a random time, users were prompted to post a picture of whatever they were doing. With a 2-minute timer and one shot to make it count, the apps premise was to capture real moments in real time.
But like most viral sensations, the novelty wore off. Downloads dropped, usage stagnated, and in 2023, the app was sold to French gaming company Voodoo for 500 million.
Now, BeReal wants a second chance.
At Cannes Lions this year, Managing Director Ben Moore shared the companys comeback plan. We have people that are committed to building the next big thing with BeReal, Moore told Business Insider. We can make something that really answers the demands of Gen Z, who are sick and tired of the filters, of the lenses, of the social pressure of posting something thats not going to get them the level of views and likes they would want.
Moore claims the app still has around 40 million active users, mainly in Japan, France, and the U.S. In 2023, worldwide downloads totaled an estimated 31.5 million, which dropped 60% year-over-year to 12.7 million in 2024. According to Sensor Tower, year-to-date downloads are down 50% compared to last year.
For its relaunch, BeReal is trying to win back users by investing in advertising, primarily on other apps owned by Voodoo Games. The team is also hoping to generate buzz through micro ambassadors on college campuses and by sponsoring parties where entry requires downloading the app.
They are giving the app a facelift too, with new features like nearby, which lets users discover others in their area, and suggestions for people who post similar kinds of pictures. We really want to bring back the social aspect of what social media was built for, Moore said.
But BeReals magic wasnt in its features. It was in the cultural momenta collective pause from the algorithm for a fleeting sense of connection (even if it was just a selfie at your desk four days in a row).
Can lightning strike twice?
Basketball fans will be keeping their eye on New York tonight for the first round of the 2025 NBA draft at Barclays Center, home of the Brooklyn Nets, with an 8 p.m. ET tip-off in Brooklyn. Round two takes place tomorrow, Thursday, June 26, at the same time and same place.
There will be a total of 59 picks this year, and fans will be watching tonight to see if the Duke Blue Devils’ Cooper Flagg will be going to the Dallas Mavericks, who have the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft.
The draft also has a number of excellent shooters, led by two freshmen: Tre Johnson of the Texas Longhorns and Duke’s Kon Knueppel. It also has some excellent “3 and D” prospects, or those who excel at both three-pointers and defense: Arizona Wildcats’ Carter Bryant, Saint Joseph’s Hawks’ Rasheer Fleming, and Washington State Cougars’ Cedric Coward.
Here’s a look at the order of selections for tonight’s first round of the NBA draft.
First Round
Dallas Mavericks
San Antonio Spurs
Philadelphia 76ers
Charlotte Hornets
Utah Jazz
Washington Wizards
New Orleans Pelicans
Brooklyn Nets
Toronto Raptors
Houston Rockets (Reportedly traded to Phoenix)
Portland Trail Blazers
Chicago Bulls
Atlanta Hawks
San Antonio
Oklahoma City Thunder
Memphis Grizzlies
Minnesota Timberwolves
Washington
Brooklyn
Miami Heat
Utah
Atlanta (Reportedly traded to Brooklyn)
New Orleans
Oklahoma City
Orlando Magic
Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Boston Celtics
Phoenix Suns
Los Angeles Clippers
NBA Draft 2025: Why only 59 picks?
Instead of the usual 60 picks, this year there are only 59. Why? Blame it on the New York Knicks, who were denied their second-round pick as a result of talking to Jalen Brunson before free agency discussions were allowed in 2022, The New York Times reported. (Brunson went on become the Knicks’ best player, averaging 26 points and 7.3 assists per game, according to ESPN.)
How can I watch or stream the NBA Draft live?
In the United States, the NBA draft 2025 will air live on ABC and ESPN. ABC is available for traditional cable viewers and free with an over-the-air antenna. Cable subscribers can also watch ABC live through the ABC website and via its mobile apps.
Cord-cutters also have the option to stream ABC on a live-TV streaming service that offers the network as part of a bundle, including Fubo, YouTube TV, or Hulu + Live TV.
The 2025 NBA draft can also be accessed on SiriusXM, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes, and the ESPN app.
