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» VISIT US ONLINE @ DSNEWS.COM 9 FILLING IN THE GENERATIONAL GAPS Realtor.com conducted a study of online traffic by age group to see who was buying where and found that younger age groups, between the ages of 25 and 34, prefer urban centers, while older groups seem to be moving out. By city, Salt Lake City is the most popular destination for 25 to 34-year-olds, due in part to its strong housing market. Realtor.com expects Salt Lake City home prices and sales to reach 4.5 percent and 4.6 percent growth, respectively, in a year-over-year projection. In addition, Salt Lake City attracts younger buyers such as millennials with new job opportunities, projecting a 9 percent growth in GDP over the year, and employment growing at 3.6 percent year-over- year. Realtor.com reports that in addition to Salt Lake City, many western and southern cities are leading the charge in home sales. Tulsa, Oklahoma; Little Rock, Arkansas; Dallas; and Charlotte, North Carolina, are expected to increase their sales by 6 percent this year, beating the national average. With these strong markets, millennials are sure to follow, a promising outlook, as Realtor.com projects their generation to comprise 43 percent of homebuyers by the end of 2018. Other popular areas for 25 to 34-year- olds include Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Michigan; Columbus, Ohio; Cincinnati, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana; and Omaha- Council Bluffs, Nebraska-Iowa. Top areas for 35-44 year olds in addition to Salt Lake City include Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota-Wisconsin; New Orleans- Metairie, Louisiana; Austin-Round Rock, Texas; and Raleigh, North Carolina. By contrast, older age groups are moving to the suburbs, with the 55+ age group preferring cities such as Albuquerque and Tucson. Other popular cities include Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Richmond, Virginia. HUD AWARDS $28 BILLION FOR DISASTER RECOVERY Natural disasters caused a record $306 billion in damages to the United States in 2017, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. With the next hurricane season fast approaching, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a major disbursement of funds to help communities still recovering from last year's storms. At $28 billion, the newly announced HUD grants represent the largest single amount of disaster recovery assistance in HUD's history. e nearly $28 billion in funds will come from HUD's Community Development Block Grant—Disaster Recovery Program. Allotted for nine states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the funds will go toward helping with "seriously damaged housing, businesses, and infrastructure from major disasters that occurred since 2015," according to HUD's statement. Within that $28 billion, $12 billion is slated to help with recovery programs for last year's disasters, while $16 billion is targeted for damage mitigation activities within communities affected by presidentially declared disaster areas since 2015. According to the HUD statement, "Mitigation can broadly be described as actions taken to protect communities from the predictable damage from future events." "It's clear that a number of states and local communities are still struggling to recover from a variety of natural disasters that occurred in the past three years," said HUD Secretary Ben Carson. "ese grants will help rebuild communities impacted by past disasters and will also protect them from major disasters in the future." Puerto Rico is receiving the largest allotment of relief funding, with a total of over $18 billion. at includes $10 billion toward recovery from last year's devastating hurricanes and $8.3 billion toward mitigation. Both the U.S. Virgin Islands and the state of Louisiana topped a billion dollars' worth of relief, with the Virgin Islands to receive $1.6 billion and Louisiana getting $1.2 billion. While the Virgin Islands funding is divided almost evenly between recovery and mitigation, Louisiana's funds are all slated for mitigation projects. e state of Florida ranks next with $707 million in funding—approximately $158 million toward recovery and approximately $550 million toward mitigation.

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