Too many New Yorkers are burdened by high housing costs, according to a report released today by State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli. Nearly 1.4 million households paid half or more of their income in 2017 towards housing costs.

“The high cost of housing can force some New Yorkers to go without basic necessities or to be evicted. This is a problem that hurts renters and homeowners across the state who can’t stretch their dollars far enough,” DiNapoli said. “Unaffordable housing undermines New Yorkers’ living standards and quality of life and damages the state’s economic health.”

Housing affordability measures look at levels of income compared to housing costs. Housing is generally considered affordable when it consumes less than 30 percent of household income.

In 2017, New York ranked third highest among states in the nation for both the percentage of renters, 26.6 percent or 900,000 households, and homeowners, 12.4 percent or 500,000 households, deemed to be severely burdened by housing costs that consumed half or more of their income, according to U.S. Census data.

The report looked at trends for housing costs from 2008 to 2017. It found:

• Median household income for the state’s renters rose 2.5 percent, while rent increased almost 13 percent, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
• Homeowners are faring better than renters when it comes to affordability trends. Those with housing costs above the affordability threshold fell from 34.5 percent (in 2008) to 27.5 percent (in 2017). Still, almost 1.1 million homeowners paid housing costs that were 30 percent or more of their income.
• From 2013 to 2017, Rockland (59.4%), Bronx (57.7%), Greene (57.5%), Suffolk (56.1%), Tompkins (54.8%) and Ulster (54.7%) counties had the highest proportions of rental households with housing costs at least 30 percent of income. Hamilton County had the lowest percentage at 29.2 percent.
• The highest proportions of homeowners paying 30 percent or more of income for housing from 2013 to 2017 were located in Kings (40.4%), Suffolk (39.1%), Queens (39.0%), Rockland (38.5%), Bronx (37.4%), and Nassau (37.2%) counties. The counties of Cortland and Chemung were lowest at 16.4 percent.

Read the report, or go to: https://osc.state.ny.us/reports/housing/affordable-housing-2019.pdf.

See Appendix A for a county-by-county breakdown of housing affordability data and Appendix B for a county-by-county breakdown of housing costs and income.

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