NYU Furman Center

Have you ever wondered what goes into developing a local housing strategy? It is a time- and resource-intensive process and the NYU Furman Center's Housing Solutions Lab has a step-by-step roadmap on how cities can create successful housing strategies. 📍 Phase A: Lay the groundwork for a successful local housing strategy 📍 Phase B: Prepare a local housing strategy  📍 Phase C: Monitor and update a local housing strategy You can read the full roadmap and access additional resources here ⬇️  https://lnkd.in/eRRu2fBr

Housing and neighborhoods are critically important for health and well-being. A significant body of research demonstrates the connections between housing and health, showing the influence of housing affordability, stability, quality and neighborhood conditions on the health of individuals and communities. The NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab put together a brief that provides an overview of these four primary connections and highlights resources to help decision makers leverage housing as a platform to improve the health of communities. Read the entire brief here: https://lnkd.in/eNFQki32 

Projects relying on the 421-a completion extension in tandem with Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH) are expected to deliver both more housing and deeper affordability to several neighborhoods across the city, according to a recent data analysis by the NYU Furman Center's Tony Bodulovic. However, if completed, the proposed projects would continue a long-standing trend where a limited number of community districts produce housing at relatively high rates, underscoring the need for policies that promote equitable development in a broader range of neighborhoods. The NYU Furman Center analyzed data released in October by NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development and Development (HPD) on approximately 650 buildings under construction. These 421-a-eligible projects capitalized on a 2024 amendment to New York State law, which extended the construction completion deadline to help them stay on schedule and remain financially feasible. To qualify, developers had until September 12, 2024, to submit a Letter of Intent to HPD. The submissions analyzed by the NYU Furman Center represent just over 68,000 new units, with 29 percent (19,811 units) income-restricted to households earning from 40 to 130 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI). The NYU Furman Center's analysis identified four key takeaways: ➡️ The combination of Mandatory Inclusionary Housing and 421-a drives development and deeper affordability ➡️ Rezoned Gowanus is expected to produce the most low-income units under the extension ➡️ Option B is the new Option C ➡️ Uneven development patterns continue Read more about what 421-a extension requests tell us about the future of multifamily housing development in NYC here ➡️ https://lnkd.in/e7yFJBsn #newyorkcity #housingresearch #research #multifamily #development #housingpolicy

To improve housing affordability, community leaders can adopt policies that encourage the production of additional housing units. For most cities, towns, and counties, the most important step is to change land use regulations that limit how much housing can be built – for example, by allowing taller buildings or smaller units, so that more homes can fit on the same size lot. Learn more about how streamlining the development approval process for new homes can contribute to increased affordability in the NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab’s Housing 101 Series here:

Seasons greetings from the entire NYU Furman Center and its Housing Solutions Lab team. This week, our growing organization came together to celebrate yet another year of accomplishments -- from our work on leveraging institutionally-owned land to spur affordable housing construction to the tradeoffs of Good Cause Eviction law to the use of Housing Choice Vouchers and their use in New York City, and so much more. We could not achieve this work without our entire team: Matthew Murphy, Vicki Been, Ingrid Gould Ellen, Katherine O’Regan, Mark Willis, Martha M. Galvez, Brad Greenburg, Bethany O'Neill, Hayley Raetz, Donna Borak, Jess Wunsch, Claudia Aiken, Aisha Balogun, Tony Bodulovic, Ryan Brenner, Justin Campos, Nora Carrier, Tianfang Cui, Alisa Hartwell, Masaaki Kato, Helen Ketema, Isabel Kirsch, Jessica Kwon, Kayla Merriweather,Elizabeth (Nikki) Miller, Patrick Spauster, Camille Watson, and Claudia Zequeria.      Along with our incredible team of Research Assistants: Austin Celestin, Peter Estes, Chloe Fauber-Lyle, Daria Guzzo, Ben Hitchcock, Yael Gonzalez Meiler, Junyi （Jean） Li, Cree Long, Danya Rubenstein-Markiewicz,  Swati Sharma, Amy Spittal, Clara Smith, and Will Viederman, our Office Assistants, Legal Research Assistants, and Doctoral students, Ellie Lochhead, Sarah Strochak, Kristen Tauber, and Grace Brang. Thank you, thank you. We also want to extend our gratitude to our thriving, growing community of housing researchers, policy professionals, and community organizations. If you are inclined to support our ongoing objective, empirical research, please consider making a year-end tax-deductible donation to the NYU Furman Center. https://lnkd.in/g38j4agP

Rents and home prices in many regions have been rising faster than incomes for the last few decades. This is true not only in places like San Francisco, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles, but also in Miami, Minneapolis, and Pittsburgh. As a result, housing is taking a bigger and bigger chunk of our incomes. In a well-functioning market, increases in demand are met with increases in supply that moderate price increases. The housing markets in high-cost cities, towns, and counties don’t work this way. In many cases, increases in demand are not met by increases in supply. That means rents and home prices rise much faster than incomes. Learn more about the market dynamics that limit housing production and drive up home prices and some of the factors causing this problem in the NNYU Furman Centers Housing Solutions Lab’s Housing 101 Series here:

There are two types of affordable housing, and they are produced in two very different ways. The first type consists of dedicated units that are set aside for low- or moderate-income households. These are created by developers using assistance from public sources or through affordability requirements or incentives. The second type, sometimes called market affordable housing, is housing that is created without any direct government subsidy. These units may rent or sell at affordable levels – but they do not have legally binding affordability requirements. Let’s talk more about each of these. Learn more about how the two types of affordable housing are created in the NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab’s Housing 101 Series here:

In the run-up to the US election, the price of food, gas, and housing appeared to never be far from voter’s minds. The incoming Trump administration has promised to cut prices on housing, food, and fuel. But what can the president and his administration really do? The BBC Business Daily explored the potential effects of Trump’s policies on inflation and the rising cost of living. Overall, experts agree that prices usually level off, not go down; and that the days of the pre-Covid economy may be over. Speaking about the cost of housing, Vicki Been, faculty director at the NYU Furman Center shared that a major part of the problem in the housing market boils down to demand outpacing supply. She explained that supply has been tight for decades due to restrictive land use regulations, as well as increasing opposition to any kind of housing development. High interest rates have also further tightened the housing market by raising the cost of buying a home and building rental apartments.  Listen to the entire episode of the BBC Business Daily here: https://lnkd.in/enDmG49b 

Millions of people have housing costs they can’t afford. As a result, they don’t have enough monthly income left over to pay for food, transportation, health care, and other essential living expenses. They may also be one missed paycheck away from eviction or foreclosure. Why can’t these families find a place they can afford? There are four big reasons for this: Incomes for many workers are too low compared to the cost of housing For-profit developers generally don’t respond to the demand for housing among lower-income households Certain types of government regulation raise production costs and reduce the overall supply of all types of housing Lack of government funding Learn more about four key reasons why housing costs are unaffordable for many low- and moderate-income households in the NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab’s Housing 101 Series here:

The federal government typically defines housing as affordable when it consumes no more than 30 percent of a household’s income. So, who needs affordable housing? Everyone. From high-income earners, to hourly wage workers, to people experiencing homelessness, and everyone in between. The rent or home price that is affordable may vary from one household to the next, but the need for housing that is affordable is shared by everyone. The good news is that the housing needs of many families are met adequately by the private market. In other words, housing costs for a high-income CEO are usually not cause for too much public concern. The bad news is that a large and growing share of the population cannot afford its housing costs. Nationally, more than one in seven households are what economists call “severely cost burdened.” This means that they pay half or more of their income on housing. Learn more about the basics of affordable housing and who is affected by housing affordability challenges in the NYU Furman Center’s Housing Solutions Lab’s Housing 101 Series here: