Mr Chavez's government aims to get 50, 000 low-cost dwellings built this year.

ECONOMIST: Venezuela

Walk into a market in a depressed neighborhood, where the average income is low, most dwellings are rented, and the demographics feature higher numbers of minorities, and prices for basic items are often higher than they are at a massive supermarket in a thriving, mostly-white suburban neighborhood.

FORBES: Individualized Coupons Aid Price Discrimination

Low-cost housing and dwellings in townships have not been spared from the rising prices either.

ECONOMIST: Foreigners are not responsible for rising property prices

Housing advocates have been alarmed by the rapid decline in the supply of affordable housing, the result of landlords scooping up low-income properties and converting them to luxury dwellings to capitalize on rising values for multifamily properties.

WSJ: Deal of the Week: Saving Affordable Housing

Mr Ban has also used paper-tube technology to create low-cost, recyclable, pest-resistant temporary dwellings for victims of earthquakes in Japan and Turkey and for Rwandan refugees.

ECONOMIST: Building design

Our administration is already encouraging certain low-income public housing residents to own and manage their own dwellings.

CNN: State of the Union Address