Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
QUESTION
What is the total number of unavailable housing units in NYC?
0:52:47
·
176 sec
In 2023, 230,000 housing units in NYC are unavailable for rent, marking a significant decrease from 353,000 units in 2021.
- The decrease reflects a one-third reduction in unavailable units over two years.
- Chief Research Officer Gaumer confirms the current total of unavailable units and highlights the improvement.
- The discussion includes the analysis of both net changes in unavailable units and the tracking of specific units over time.
- Despite the decrease, 230,000 unavailable units remain a substantial number, indicating ongoing challenges in housing availability.
- The conversation reveals that 62% of the units that were offline in 2021 are now occupied, signaling progress towards greater occupancy rates.
Lincoln Restler
0:52:47
Gammar, so it's a 123,200.
0:52:50
Fewer units that are not available than 2 years ago.
0:52:52
Is that right?
Elyzabeth Gaumer
0:52:55
Yes.
0:52:55
That's right.
Lincoln Restler
0:52:55
So could you just help us?
0:52:56
What's the denominator?
0:52:57
Like, what's the total number of units that are not available?
0:53:00
If it's a 123,000 fewer than it was 2 years ago, how many are not available altogether?
Elyzabeth Gaumer
0:53:05
Absolutely.
0:53:06
For those of you who have your selected initial finding report Oh,
Lincoln Restler
0:53:10
give me a buzz.
Elyzabeth Gaumer
0:53:11
I can direct you to that page.
0:53:15
So it's page 29 is where we enumerate this and we have additional data.
0:53:20
If it's helpful, we can also bring up a couple of appendix slides to talk about that.
0:53:23
So in 2023, the total city wide number of units that were not available for rent was 230,000.
Lincoln Restler
0:53:31
230,000.
0:53:33
So that's a big amount.
Elyzabeth Gaumer
0:53:35
Yeah.
0:53:35
Just so that we know that no change, that's down from 350, 3000.
Lincoln Restler
0:53:39
So it's down a third in 2 years.
0:53:41
That's a good thing.
0:53:43
If my math is working close enough, Jake is nodding, so I I got the good.
0:53:49
We're down about a third.
0:53:50
That's a good thing.
0:53:51
But still 230,000 units offline is a lot of units.
0:53:56
I I was I found it notable that only 62 per I guess that's the same thing.
0:54:00
That's the same data point another way that 62% of the 2021 offline units are now occupied.
Elyzabeth Gaumer
0:54:09
It's a slightly different measure.
Oksana Mironova
0:54:10
Those are
Elyzabeth Gaumer
0:54:10
complementary ways of thinking about that topic, that general topic.
0:54:14
So let me maybe help clarify.
0:54:16
For others who maybe are not good at doing the math in their heads.
0:54:20
So we look at change in 2 different ways, and I've presented both of those here in my testimony, and we cover that in our report.
0:54:29
One way as we look at what I'm referring to is net change between these two surveys.
0:54:34
Right?
0:54:34
So We have an estimate in 21, 353,000 units.
0:54:39
We have an estimate in 2023, 230 1000 units, we can look at what that change is.
0:54:44
Importantly, the net change includes things that have both gone up and gone down.
0:54:50
So units that had been vacant and not available or vacant or occupied.
0:54:55
Right?
0:54:55
Some of those will change and leave that group over those 2 years.
0:54:59
Others will enter it.
0:55:00
And when we say the net change, we're just looking at the difference between those two points in time.
0:55:04
So that's one way of looking at this.
0:55:06
The second way that we are able to do with our survey is to look at what happens to specific units that we're studying and following over time.
0:55:16
And so that's a different way of looking at change.
0:55:18
And when we do that and share that today, what we were doing was saying all of our 21 what what we saw it in 21 reported to you what has happened to those specific units.
0:55:28
So they're both looking at and they both point in the same direction, which is that there is just dramatically higher rates of occupancy of every kind, of every type in every place that that is obviously, what's leading to a a very, very low vacancy rate.
Lincoln Restler
0:55:43
Right.