HUDSON VALLEY – Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress has released a new report highlighting the affordability crisis for housing in the region. Stagnant wages, increasing rents, and skyrocketing home prices have shut down the path to homeownership, as median home prices exceed mortgage qualifications by more than $100,000 in the nine-county area that was analyzed.
The report, Out of Reach Hudson Valley 2023, uses federal and local data to examine the gap between wages and the cost of rental housing for those living in the nine-county region. Pattern also examined the affordability of homeownership throughout the Hudson Valley by comparing median home prices to the mortgages for which typical families would qualify in each county. Included in the nine-county region: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester counties.
The data shows a persistent and clear trend across the entire Hudson Valley: the cost of housing has pushed beyond reasonable levels of affordability for most of our neighbors. A single worker cannot afford fair-market rent for a one-bedroom apartment in any of the nine counties, and median home prices are more than $100,000 higher than the mortgage that typical families would qualify for in every county.
“The data we analyze each year tell a clear and troubling story: most of our neighbors cannot afford to live in the communities where they work,” said Adam Bosch, Pattern CEO. “As our neighbors choose to leave the region, have smaller families, and our workforce slowly shrinks, the Hudson Valley is starting to feel some of the most painful ramifications of stagnant housing and zoning policies.”
The report found that single adults working 40 hours per week on average renter wages cannot afford a one-bedroom apartment and that rents would need to decline by up to $1,343 per month to make them affordable for a person earning average renter wages across the region.
For more than a decade, renters have been on the rise. The report found that wages earned by a typical renter ranged from 39 to 61 percent of the area median income, a key metric for housing policies and programs as area leaders search for solutions to make housing more affordable.
The report also revealed that the median price of a home in the Hudson Valley exceeds mortgage qualifications for the typical household by more than $100,000 in all nine counties studied. For a two-person household, the gap is anywhere from $109,609 in Putnam County to $280,699 in Westchester County.
“Civic leaders at every level must rally around evidence-based solutions to solve our regional crisis of housing affordability and availability,” said Bosch. “The vibrancy and viability of our communities will depend on actions that encourage the production of more housing at prices our working-class neighbors can afford.”
