Dive Brief:
- Manhattan vacancy rates hit just above 2% this year, while average rents rose to more than $5,400 a month, nearly 6% above 2023 averages, according to the 2025 Housing Manhattanites report.
- The housing crisis has left more than 45% of households rent-burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. That’s up from just below 40% in 2023.
- “The numbers are astounding,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine said in the report. “This is what a full-blown affordability crisis looks like—and it’s the worst in our city’s history.”
Dive Insight:
In November, New Yorkers voted to approve several charter revisions that could expedite affordable housing in the city, including streamlined reviews for residential and infrastructure developments and the creation of an Affordable Housing Review Appeals Board.
In Manhattan’s quest to create more housing, it is also turning to its residents for help, crowdsourcing suggestions for potential housing sites. Manhattanites came through with more than 90 submissions, out of which the borough identified 34 viable locations that could lead to as many as 3,000 additional housing units and 350 affordable homes, according to the report.
Efforts to rezone areas for more housing are also progressing. This year the city approved a Midtown South mixed-use plan expected to generate more than 9,500 new homes, more than 2,800 of them affordable.
The report also proposes a rezoning opportunity in West Harlem that it says could yield as many as 6,000 additional housing units.
“The work ahead remains substantial,” Levine added, “but the momentum is undeniable.”
