The percentage of New York State households with housing costs above the affordability threshold, as defined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), rose for both homeowners and renters from 2000 to 2012, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
After almost a full decade of U.S. economic expansion, too many New Yorkers still face real challenges making ends meet. One clear sign of this troubling reality is the millions of renters and homeowners in our State who struggle with high housing costs.
One tenet of the “smart growth” movement is that communities should strive to preserve open space, farmland, natural beauty and critical environmental areas.
New York State's Farmland Protection Program was created in 1992 to preserve high quality working farmland and to reduce pressures on farm families to sell their lands and leave the farming industry. Counties and towns receive financial support from the program to develop farmland protection plans and to purchase development rights on farmland.
Consumer interest in organic products has grown in recent years, as reflected by rising sales nationwide—with a 56 percent increase in New York from 2008 through 2014.
New York State's economy is interdependent with the major U.S. automobile makers through New York State based auto- related jobs and billions of dollars of debt held by New York based financial institutions.
Over the past five years, the average cost of a college education has grown by over 30 percent, more than twice as fast as the inflation rate during this period.
New York City has always been a gateway to opportunity for people from around the world. Successive waves of immigration created a melting pot of cultures that left its mark on the City’s history and its neighborhoods.
Spanish | Russian | Chinese | Korean | Haitian-Creole
The current recession has had a significant impact on New York State’s residents. Jobs have been lost in virtually all industries in New York State, and the unemployment rate reached 9 percent in December 2009—a rate last seen in April 1983.
Agriculture is important to New York State’s economy, and takes place in almost every region of the State.
