This number is significantly higher than the previously reported 61,000 by the state, according to the City, who obtained the previously unreleased updated figures.
The Department of Housing Preservation and Development based its estimates on data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau last year. The city has about 1 million stabilized units which are mostly located in buildings erected before 1974, the blog says.
The increased estimates includes 42,860 units that were “unavailable” and “tens of thousands” more still available for rent, according to HPD Chief Research Officer Lyz Gaumer. Collectively this encompasses both apartments that are up for rent and others than landlords are keeping off the market, but are still livable.
Gaumer told The City that the numbers are “a very conservative estimate of the entire warehoused apartment universe.”
“We are accounting for numbers that aren’t necessarily reported to the state,” said HPD department spokesperson Jeremy House. The state uses data that is reported to them by landlords and owners, he noted.
Census data revealed that 4.54% of all New York apartments were vacant as of 2021, up from 3.63% in 2017, The City wrote. A rent emergency for the city is enacted only after vacancies exceed 5%.
The Community Housing Improvement Program, a landlord group, says that “the extremely high number should send off alarm bells to lawmakers that something is wrong and needs to be fixed immediately to get these units back on line.”