Mar
12
City Wide Analysis – #7 – Josh Hirth
March 12, 2015 | Leave a Comment
The City Wide Analysis discusses several different topics as it relates to housing in NY. It first discusses how housing construction has finally picked up since the recession and although it has not reached the same 15,000 units per year we have still grown to almost 12,500 units. It also discusses how by the end (and mainly towards the end) of Bloomberg’s term he allowed for the rezoning of many parts of the NY to the extent of 127 neighborhoods. The article also discusses how new zoning regulations in 1987 allowed developers to exceed the zoning regulation of their building in exchange for the building of affordable housing either on site or in proximity. According to the article this has lead to approximately 100 affordable housing buildings across the city but most densely situated on the West and East sides of Manhattan. To my understanding this allowance was a great effort by the government to move poorer peoples out of poorer neighborhoods and into expensive ones while allowing developers to continue to profit off of the luxury buildings. A win win for everyone.
In addition the City Wide Analysis discusses how the City created more historic landmarks and districts. More specifically “Newly designated individual landmarks were located mainly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but also included historic firehouses in the Bronx.” I think that this is great, and it assures NY remains historically significant and enhances the city’s identity. The article also discusses how NYC is still dealing the aftermath of hurricane sandy. In my previous IDC class I spent a lot of time researching hurricane Sandy and what it did to this city. I am particularly interested in this work especially the work in preventing a future storm to cause the same level of destruction. In other words “the amendment allows retrofit buildings and new construction in flood-prone areas greater design flexibility—with respect to building height, access from the exterior and location of parking and mechanical systems—to allow buildings to more easily meet local, state, and federal resiliency requirements.”
Although homeownership is down overall from 2007, which was the height of the market, it is up in 2013. To me homeownership represents the American dream and the culmination of ones resettlement in this country. I am hopeful that over the next decade homeownership will increase and NY will no longer be lagging in terms of homeownership, but with home prices rising year over year I am concerned. We need to make an effort to reduce home prices, by creating more lax zoning regulations. This will assure the return of middle class families to the city, which is a vitally important demographic that has been forced out over the last 20-30 years.
Although the article argues that homes are now more affordable then during the recession boom because prices have fallen and interest rates on mortgages has also fallen, I disagree. Prices are again on the steep rise and it is increasingly difficult to get a mortgage. We have seen the ability of the city government and the mayors office to shift and change zoning regulations for things like the recovery from hurricane Sandy. The lack of affordable housing in the city is just as important, and is a crisis in it of itself that needs to be dealt with.
In terms of renters, pricing has also been rising and the situation has gotten worse. As someone who follows real estate trends in Manhattan, that’s not surprising. The only way to keep market rate apartments as rentals and not convert them to condos in a rising market is to raise rents. Why else keep them as rentals if you cash out big by converting. The other thing I found interesting was the discussion of how tenants that live in “their unit for fewer than five years paid about $225 more each month than renters overall.” Another relevant piece of information is that rents have gone up at a different rate then income. This obviously is wildly problematic for everyone, and in part can be attested to the foreign money that has taken over the city. Finally as we discussed in class and as the article mentions, the new development projects in the city are largely targeting the wealthy thereby creating an even larger shortage in the future for the middle and lower income residents. Towards the end of the article it mentions that although living conditions in the city are improving at all levels of income, including education, health, and crime rates. It is improving at higher rate amongst the wealthy thereby creating yet another gap between the classes.
