The vacancy rate for New York City rental apartments has dropped to a minuscule 1.4% according to a key U.S. Census survey, in a sign that population loss during the pandemic has been reversed and that demand for housing is far outstripping the pace of new construction.
The 2023 New York City Housing and Vacancy survey also found that 86% of New Yorkers making less than $25,000 spend more than 50% of their income on rent, which makes them “severely rent burdened.” For those earning between $25,000 and $50,000, 45% fall into the same category.
The report is likely to increase pressure for Albany lawmakers to act on Mayor Eric Adams’ housing agenda, which includes restoring a tax break for rental construction, changes to make conversion of office buildings to residential use easier, legalizing basement apartments and other so-called accessory dwelling units, and allowing more density in residential buildings.
It will also help speed the Adams administration’s “City of Yes” proposal for a series of zoning changes designed to spur the development of more housing, especially in areas that have built very few affordable units.
The report, commissioned by the city from the U.S. Census Bureau, usually comes out every three years, but 2020’s was delayed a year to allow for the decennial Census count.
In the two years since the 2021 survey, the new Census report says, the vacancy rate among rentals fell from 4.54% in 2021 to 1.41% in 2023, its lowest level since 1968, the year before Albany enacted the current system of rent regulation.
About 60,000 housing units were built in the five boroughs in those two years, somewhat more than the recent average, but the number of city households in the same time period increased by 275,000.
The supply of even higher-priced apartments is tight, with the vacancy rate of units renting for more than $2,400 a low 3.39%. Virtually no apartments renting for less than $1,100 are unoccupied.
The report says the number of vacant apartments fell by 35% since 2021, when the Housing and Vacancy Survey showed tens of thousands of empty units.
Supporters of efforts to win legislation that would boost the local housing stock seized on the report to make their case.
“The new data shows it is nearly impossible to find housing in New York City right now due to a lack of supply,” said Rachel Fee, executive director of the New York Housing Conference, a nonprofit affordable housing developer advocacy group. “New Yorkers need real solutions to add housing, particularly for low-income New Yorkers where competition for housing is fierce. Renters competing for the same units drive up costs.”
The Citizens Budget Commission, which supports the Adams housing agenda, agreed.
“Record high rents and record low vacancy rates are the direct result of an inadequate supply of housing, for all income levels, and the focus should be on building more of every type of housing across the city to reverse these trends,” said Ana Champeny, vice president of research for the commission.
But Ellen Davidson of the Legal Aid Society, an attorney advocating for tenants, offered a different solution.
“This survey demonstrates that past decisions by local and state governments to ignore the needs of low income New Yorkers has resulted in this disastrous report,” she said. “Mayor Adams could start to provide relief to low income renters by fully implementing the CityFHEPS program,” referring to a local voucher program that the City Council voted to expand over Adams’ veto.
The City Council uses the vacancy report to meet a legal requirement that it demonstrate that a “housing emergency” exists, which undergirds the city’s rent regulation system.
It is based on data from almost 10,000 interviews conducted approximately every three years.