Virginia K. Smith

With foreign investment inflating sales prices in cities across the globe, strict new measures enacted in Vancouver to address the problem, including a vacancy tax as well as a 15 percent tax on foreign buyers, may be a game-changer. Unsurprisingly, the new laws have already had significant consequences, with even mid-range foreign home buyers seeing tax bills to the tune of tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of dollars.

Much ink has been spilled in the last year or two over the rapid-fire gentrification of the South Bronx, an area many developers are banking on as the next major hub for artists priced out of Brooklyn. And while one often hears about locals battling against their neighborhood's development, one prominent Bronx local is banking on a different strategy for the neighborhood's future: "self-gentrification."