The vacancy rate for rental housing in New York City has hit the lowest level recorded since measurements began more than half a century ago.
A report by the Department of Housing said vacancy dropped to just 1.4%, the tightest level measured since the city began its Housing and Vacancy Survey in 1968. The survey collected data from January though mid-June 2023.
“The data is clear: the demand to live in our city is far outpacing our ability to build housing. New Yorkers need our help, and they need it now,” Mayor Eric Adams said in a statement.
In 2021, the last time the city conducted the survey, the vacancy rate was more than 4.5%, a difference of 310 basis points. In the latest measure, apartments priced between $1,650 and $2,399 had a rate of just 0.78%, while the rate at units between $1,100 and $1,649 was 0.91%. More expensive apartments fared better with a 3.39% rate for rentals priced above $2,400.
The average asking rent in greater New York City is $3,109, according to CoStar data.
“The historic low vacancy rate from the 2023 Housing Vacancy Survey illustrates the pressures New Yorkers are facing in the housing market and underscores the dramatic need for more homes in New York City, especially for lower income New Yorkers,” Maria Torres-Springer, deputy mayor for housing, economic development and workforce, said in a statement.
Administered in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau, the survey is the longest-running housing poll in the United States. Its results are used to determine the city’s official net vacancy rate that is in turn used to set polices around rent control and rent stabilization.
In addition to vacancy rates, the survey determined that though the city’s housing supply continued to grow, up 2% from 2021, it could not keep pace with the number of occupied housing units, a category that increased 9% over the same time. Rental costs increased about the same rate as inflation, a measure that also reached as much as 9% in 2022.
Household incomes were significantly higher during the survey period than in 2021 with large net increases in the number and share of households earning more than $100,000 annually, according to the results. But those with incomes less than that threshold struggled with affordability.
Among renters earning less than $70,000 a year — New York’s median household income in 2023 — the median rent-to-income ratio was 54%, well above the marker for being severely rent burdened, according to the survey.
Housing advocates across the United States consider tenants to be rent burdened if they spend more than 30% of their income on housing.
Most New York low-income renters who didn’t quality for financial assistance were rent burdened, the survey showed, with 86% of households earning less than $50,000 meeting the criteria. Renter households earning less than $25,000 without rental assistance were severely rent burdened at the same proportion.
“The findings of the 2023 Housing Vacancy Survey further highlight how dire New York City’s affordable housing crisis has become,” Eric Enderlin, president of the New York City Housing Development Corp., said in a statement. “With a record-low vacancy rate and a growing number of New Yorkers facing the financial strain of rising rents, it’s critical that our city receives the resources needed from every level of government to effectively address our affordable housing shortage.”