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A New Model for Affordable Homeownership in NYC
BY BOB ANNIBALE, CHRISTIE PEALE & MARIA TORRES-SPRINGER | JANUARY 17, 2018
For the vast majority of New Yorkers, the American Dream of owning a home is simply beyond reach. But a citywide collaborative of non-profit affordable housing organizations, with support from Citi Community Development, is working to bring affordability back to New York City neighborhoods.
According to NYU’s Furman Center, housing prices across the five boroughs have more than doubled since 1990, but real median household income has fallen by 11 percent over the same time period. Roughly half of the city’s households earn $55,000 or less per year, yet they could afford just 9 percent of the homes sold in 2014. Even households earning up to $114,000 annually – twice the national median household income — could only afford 42 percent of the homes on the market.
That is bad news for the many nurses and transit workers, teachers and police officers, carpenters and firefighters who want to own a home and build household wealth that can last for generations. It’s bad news for up-and-coming neighborhoods, where residents unable to buy a home run the risk of displacement in the face of rising rents. And it’s bad news for a city that seeks to remain a place of inclusion and opportunity for all.
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