Meaningful housing and neighborhood choice is a foundational element of fair housing. Yet for too many New Yorkers, housing choice is constrained by a shortage of low-cost homes across the city. A key cause of this housing scarcity is decades of restrictive zoning policies in the city and surrounding suburban areas that have limited where, how much, and what types of housing can be built. As vacancy rates have fallen to historic lows, housing costs have continued to rise, hitting the lowest-income households the hardest. The 2023 NYC Housing and Vacancy Survey found the citywide net rental vacancy rate was just 1.4%–the lowest it has been since 1968. Homes affordable to the lowest-income households are even rarer; fewer than 0.4% of homes renting for $1,100 or less are vacant and available for rent.
Building more housing is a critical part of the solution to this crisis, and the city is making progress. In the past five years, 136,000 new homes have been added to New York City’s housing supply. During this five-year period, the city added 70% of the 2010-2020 total, a significant increase. If this pace continues to 2030, the city could exceed 200,000 new units in a decade for the first time since the 1960s.
Figure 5.2: Completed Housing Units in NYC by Decade, 1920-2024
Source: NYC Department of City Planning Housing Database, 2025
Figure 5.3 Completed New Housing Units by Year, 2010-2024
Source: NYC Department of City Planning Housing Database, 2025
Housing production is geographically uneven, and affordable housing production is still concentrated in too few neighborhoods
Despite this overall positive trend in increasing citywide production, not all neighborhoods are contributing to expanding the city’s housing supply. In the last 10 years, new homes have been concentrated in a small number of neighborhoods—many of them communities of color—while other areas with restrictive zoning have seen little housing development.
–Public workshop participant, spring 2025
Figure 5.4 Housing units in new buildings completed between 2014-2024
Source: NYC Department of City Planning Housing Database, 2025
Figure 5.5 NYC Population by Race and Ethnicity, 2023
Source: American Community Survey 2019-2023, five-year estimates
In the last decade, the top 10 neighborhoods in terms of new housing production accounted for 30% of total production, while the bottom 130 neighborhoods accounted for just 10% of total production. Many of the top producing parts of the city—Brooklyn and Queens waterfronts, west side of Manhattan, South Bronx waterfront—underwent areawide rezonings to unlock housing potential where housing was previously not allowed.
Uneven housing production trends are even more pronounced for affordable housing. While six community districts added fewer than 100 new affordable homes in projects started between 2014 and 2024, the top 13 community districts have all added at least 4,000 new affordable homes during this period. Those six that built the least have a median income of $100,000, almost double the median income ($58,000) of the 13 that have built the most. These disparities reflect a combination of historic policy decisions, housing market conditions, and local opposition to new development—factors that can significantly limit new low-cost housing. Further compounding the challenge are the scarcity of available land, complex zoning regulations, and lengthy approval processes that can drive up development costs and slow down production.
Figure 5.6: Affordable Housing Production by Census Tract, 2014-2024
Source: NYC Housing Preservation and Development
Parts of the city that have added limited new affordable housing are often the hardest for lower-income New Yorkers to find housing. The map below shows parts of the city where low-cost housing is most scarce, labeled limited-affordability areas (LAAs). HPD defines Limited Affordability Areas as those with the fewest number of total existing and recently turned over (units moved into within the last five years) affordable rental homes. For both measures, affordability is defined as having a monthly rent less than 30% of the median household income by the unit’s number of bedrooms. The map below shows the 14 least affordable areas by this measure. Unsurprisingly, areas with the least new affordable housing development in the last ten years tend to have limited affordability, reducing housing choice and often reinforcing historic segregation patterns.
Figure 5.7: Limited affordability areas 2023
Source: NYC Housing Preservation and Development
Recent neighborhood rezonings have boosted housing supply and secured permanent affordability in all five boroughs
Over the last decade, the City has initiated neighborhood planning processes with a more consistent focus on housing growth. The plans resulted in updates to local zoning requirements that facilitate new housing development alongside commitments to local infrastructure and service investments. Since 2016, those updated zoning requirements include Mandatory Inclusionary Housing (MIH). Where MIH requirements apply, new housing developments must include permanently affordable and rent stabilized homes—without additional City subsidy. In areas where the City initiated rezonings since 2016, MIH has generated over 3,100 new permanently affordable homes in buildings that would otherwise be entirely market rate. Two of these rezoning areas, Gowanus and Soho/Noho, were identified in WWL2020 as important opportunities for equitable housing development: central areas with excellent transit access and little affordable housing.
Figure 5.8: City Initiated Neighborhood Rezonings, 2016-Present
Source: NYC Housing Preservation and Development
City of Yes for Housing Opportunity zoning reforms will create opportunity in places that have seen the least amount of new housing
Neighborhood plans are resource-intensive efforts focused on areas where current zoning is poorly suited to current or future transit and neighborhood conditions. These efforts have contributed to significant new housing development, including permanently affordable housing. But the city needs more housing in every neighborhood, particularly low-cost and affordable housing, to ensure that New Yorkers can find a home in the neighborhood that best meets their needs.
In WWL2020, the City committed to expanding housing options in low-density zoning districts to encourage the development of low-cost housing and enable the creation of a wider variety of housing types. Adopted in 2024, City of Yes is a historic reform of the zoning text that enables a little more housing in all neighborhoods, including in amenity-rich areas that have historically resisted growth. Among its key provisions are a set of tools that enable modest new housing development in low-density areas, such as allowing new infill housing on neighborhood commercial corridors and small backyard or basement apartments in low-density areas. These tools encourage housing types that are naturally lower cost due to their smaller size or construction methods. City of Yes’s citywide and incremental approach to growth complements targeted neighborhood rezonings and supports more equitable change across the city over time.
The City will continue to increase housing production and diversify housing types, particularly in areas where low-cost housing is most scarce
To continue to address these disparities described above, the City will find new ways to emphasize creating affordable housing in LAAs. HPD will prioritize these neighborhoods in the City’s affordable housing pipeline, advancing a more equitable distribution of low-cost housing across the city.
The Fair Housing Framework creates new accountability for equitable housing development
The City’s new Fair Housing Framework will be an important tool to help ensure more equitable housing development in the coming years. The Framework calls for an assessment of the city’s housing needs to be paired with five-year housing production targets by community district. With the support of the City Council, setting housing production targets at the community district-level—including affordable housing targets—can help guide future land use decisions and affordable housing investments to areas with the least low-cost housing today. Recently proposed City Charter amendments are intended to assist the City in reaching its affordable housing goals, including future housing production targets. These proposals will be decided on by voters in November 2025.
New York needs a broader set of housing types to meet diverse needs
In addition to continuing to encourage new affordable housing development, the City is committing to a series of targeted strategies to expand housing choice and affordability for New Yorkers with the greatest housing needs. These include legalizing shared housing arrangements to diversify housing options and encouraging more mid-rise development in low-density areas. Expanding the range of housing types—such as shared housing and mid-rise buildings — can better match the diverse needs and incomes of New Yorkers, helping more people find homes they can afford in the neighborhoods of their choice. These actions reflect an understanding that achieving fair housing requires not only building more homes but building them equitably—across all neighborhoods and for households of all sizes and income levels.
