Why the Rent Is So High

New York City faces a housing crisis that’s making it harder for middle- and low-income people to live here.

By James Barron
Aug. 8, 2022, 


It sounds illogical to say that there’s a housing shortage in the largest city in America, but there is. More people want to live here than the city can hold, and that has driven up prices for the available apartments and houses. I asked Mihir Zaveri, who covers housing in New York, to talk about why it’s so hard to find an affordable apartment in the city — and what’s behind the affordability crisis.

Have rents climbed so high that middle- and lower-income people are wondering if they can continue to live in New York?

More than 50,000 people were staying in New York City shelters last week, according to a tally compiled by the news site City Limits, while tallies from the 1990s were closer to 20,000.

In 1965, the typical New York City household spent about 20 percent of its income on rent, according to a survey conducted by the city. From 2011 to 2021, that number was close to 35 percent.

Between 2017 and 2021 the city lost nearly 100,000 units that rented for less than $1,500 a month, according to the survey. It gained roughly the same number that rented for $2,300 or more, continuing a 30-year trend.

The struggles seem clear. We talked to residents who have moved away from the city and who do not want to come back, as well as those who are considering moving away.

Yvonne Stennett, who has been the executive director of the Community League of the Heights, a community development group in Washington Heights, for more than 40 years, said that many longtime residents had been “pushed out,” as wealthier people moved into the area and affordable homes disappeared.

She summarizes the problem in four words: “The prices have jumped up.”

Almost anywhere you walk in New York, there’s construction. Is it keeping up with demand?

A Guide to Renting in New York CityAn Affordability Crisis: Why is it so hard to find an affordable apartment in New York? Here’s a look at the roots of the city’s housing shortage.

‘Covid Discounts’ End: Early in the pandemic, landlords slashed rents to attract tenants. Now, more than 40 percent of Manhattan’s available units come from those priced out of apartments they leased during that time.

Finding Affordable Housing: Use our tool to see which financial programs you may be eligible for and how to apply.

Rent Regulation: New Yorkers who live in rent-stabilized apartments will see their largest increase in almost a decade. Here’s what to know.

Demand, which can be theoretical, is very hard to quantify. But most people agree that housing supply is not keeping up with demand.

A Washington policy and research group, Up For Growth, has estimated that in 2019, the New York metropolitan area needed more than 340,000 additional homes, based on patterns of household formation and vacancy data.

That shortage is fueled by years of sluggish construction compared with other American cities. The city has issued fewer building permits per resident over most of the past decade than Boston, Austin and San Francisco, according to a study from the Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit research group.

City officials also estimate that new housing is not keeping up with new job growth.

Why can’t state and local officials find solutions? What measures have been talked about to increase the supply of new housing?

State lawmakers this year considered and failed to pass at least four different measures to boost the supply of housing in and around the city: Bills that would have made it easier to build apartment buildings around mass transit and that would have allowed cities to legalize basement and garage homes died after opposition from lawmakers representing New York City suburbs. A bill that would have removed a state cap on residential building size also died in the Legislature.

And lawmakers let a contentious tax break that helped finance the development of big new apartment buildings, known as 421-a, expire without replacing or reforming it. The city and state have also long failed to retool the uneven underlying tax system that puts more of a burden on big apartment buildings than on smaller properties.

A bill that would have curtailed exorbitant rent increases — known as “good cause eviction” — also failed after pushback from landlord advocates.