New York SBDC Research Network

The  2015 Survey of Market Absorption of New Multifamily Units annual report  provides absorption details for units constructed in 2014. The Survey of Market Absorption of New Multifamily Units is conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau on behalf of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. This survey measures how soon privately financed, nonsubsidized, unfurnished units in buildings with five or more units are rented or sold (absorbed) after completion. In addition, it collects data on characteristics such as number of bedrooms, asking rent and asking price.

"The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD's) Office of Policy Development and Research (PD&R) supports the Department's efforts to help create cohesive, economically healthy communities. "PD&R is responsible for maintaining current information on housing needs, market conditions, and existing programs, as well as conducting research on priority housing and community development issues. The Office provides reliable and objective data and analysis to help inform policy decisions. PD&R is committed to involving a greater diversity of perspectives, methods, and researchers in HUD research." And that's where I found Qualified Census Tracts and Difficult Development Areas and other low-income data regarding housing, which can be applied to other uses.

Every housing market is unique. These Local Market Reports (LMRs) — which reflect data available through 4th Quarter 2009 — provide insights into the fundamentals and direction of the nation's largest metropolitan housing markets. Each downloadable report evaluates a number of factors affecting home prices, including: •• The health of the local job market •• Foreclosure rates •• Housing inventory •• Debt-to-income and mortgage-servicing-costs-to-income ratios

The Census Bureau released three Economic Census reports last week: 2007 Economic Census: Arts, Entertainment and Recreation Industry Series 2007 Economic Census: Construction Industry Series 2007 Business Expenses for Wholesale and Retail Trades Unsurprising, I suppose. But Census has also recently released Reports on Residential Vacancies and Homeownership , which showed "National vacancy rates in the second quarter 2009 were 10.6 (+ 0.4) percent for rental housing and 2.5 (+ 0.1) percent for homeowner housing...The Census Bureau said the rental vacancy rate was higher than the second quarter 2008 rate (10.0 percent) and higher than the rate last quarter (10.1 percent). For homeowner vacancies, the current rate was lower than the second quarter 2008 rate (2.8 percent) and lower than the rate last quarter (2.7 percent). The homeownership rate at 67.4 (+ 0.5) percent for the current quarter was lower than the second quarter 2008 rate (68.1 percent), but not statistically different...

Until recently, I had never heard of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council . "The Council is a formal interagency body empowered to prescribe uniform principles, standards, and report forms for the federal examination of financial institutions by the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (FRB), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), and to make recommendations to promote uniformity in the supervision of financial institutions." I used the Census data to get, for a state, metro area, county down to census tract, Income Level, Distressed or Underserved Tract, Median Family Income, % 2007 HUD Est., Est. Tract Median Family Income, Minority Population and Owner vs. Rental Occupied Units.

Angel Roman sent us a link to an interesting report with housing and community stats by community board, issued by the Furman Center: State of New York City's Housing and Neighborhoods 2005 . "Every year the Furman Center compiles statistics on housing, demographics and quality of life in New York City’s neighborhoods from a variety of sources. "This edition streamlines the presentation to focus attention on the critical data that reveals how the City, its five boroughs, and its 59 community districts, have fared in recent years. It shows how each of the City’s neighborhoods is progressing, both in absolute terms and in relation to other areas of the City. It provides the first independent analysis of the just-released results of the 2005 Housing and Vacancy Survey. Finally, it adds a chapter analyzing how the affordability and availability of housing has changed between 2002 and 2005."