New York real estate under the cloud of illegal homes

New York real estate is facing a chronic housing shortage due to governments failure to provide affordable New York homes for sale for New Yorkers mostly outside Manhattan. Mayor elect Bill de Blasio who would take office on January.1. !1" have pledged to build or preserve !!#!!! low and middle$income units in the ne%t decade thus closing the gap between the rich and poor. &ailure to take immediate steps towards the development of real estate NYC may create a situation when New York would become a place only for the rich and where 'mi%ed$income neighborhoods will be a thing of past. Ma(ority of New Yorkers are spending higher share of their income or paychecks on housing than ever before with about one third of them paying at half of their income on rent as per the study carried on by )ent *uidelines Board +)B*,. -he housing emergency may only grow worse with the city officials pro(ecting the New York population to increase by about 1!. to /.1 million by the end of !0!. 1ccording to the 2ousing and 3acancy 4urvey +234,$ !11 carried on by )B* that reflects the household income for !1! has shown that the median income for all rental households was 506#""7. -he median monthly contract rent being paid that includes the available New York apartments for rent but e%cluding any additional tenant payments for fuel and utilities for all rental units was 511!! per month. -he median gross rent that includes fuel and utility payments was 51# !" a month for renters. 8sually# housing is considered as affordable when a household pays not more than 0!. of their income on rent as per the 2ousing and 8rban 9evelopment +289, benchmark. :n New York# the contract rent$to$income ratio was 0!.6. for all renters in !11 which is the highest ratio ever reported by 234 and it is the first time that this ratio has been above 0!.. -he housing shortage is fuelling the rent and the e%istence of illegal basement dwellings. :t is estimated (ust about 06. of New York ;ity renters live in unregulated and available New York apartments for rent on market rates. -enants have less bargaining power in such a tight market and this shortage of housing is contributing to the economic instability and homelessness. 1ccording to the ;oalition for 2omeless that provides up to date information on New York ;itys homeless population# there are more than <1#!!! people sleeping in city shelters each night which is an almost 7!. increase since !! . -he

shortage of housing is fuelling the e%istence of thousands of illegal basement apartments especially in =ueens borough as per the estimate arrived at by ;hhaya ;ommunity 9evelopment ;orporation that works with 4outh 1sians in the borough. -he survey also found that at least 0<. could be potentially legali>ed to provide ade?uate air# light and safety. @%perts opine that New Yorks high rents and low vacancies may be due to too much subsidi>ed housing that is forcing developers to increase the prices of the available market rate of New York homes for sale to make up for the revenue lost on below market units.