Sharply Rising Rents In NYC Increase Burden For Most Households

Over the past three years, housing rents in New York City have risen faster than inflation, and inflation-adjusted incomes have fallen, forcing New Yorkers with low or moderate income to allot a much larger share of their household budget for rent, according to a new report from New York University, The State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods. Prepared by the Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy, a joint initiative of the New York University School of Law and the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service at NYU, the report finds that the rate of new construction has outpaced population growth in recent years, but that the number of units available at rents affordable to the 42 percent of the city's households earning $32,000 or less fell by almost 205,000 units in the last three years.

The report provides the first independent analysis of the just-released results of the 2005 Housing and Vacancy Survey, a citywide survey of housing and neighborhood conditions conducted every three years by the U.S. Census Bureau for the City of New York. The report also features detailed analysis of 59 neighborhoods within the five boroughs, examining factors such as racial and economic diversity, housing quality, and sub-prime lending, as well as trends in public safety and education.

Some of the report's most notable findings about the state of the city include: