Housing Starts: Housing an Aging Population | Build it Back Program Progress | Bidding up Brooklyn

Rendering of 125 Greenwich St. condo project. (New York YIMBY)

1. Micro-unit Apartments: Tiny and Booming Compounding the simple imbalance of supply and demand, there is a mismatch across the U.S. between the type of housing desired and the type of housing available. ‘The population of singles and couples far exceeds the number of studios and one bedrooms,’ says John Infranca, research affiliate at NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate and Urban Policy. He is coauthor of a report examining this mismatch. In many cities, the available housing is 50-70 years-old on average, and thus designed for a different era. In his words, it was ‘a time when we had more large families [and] people weren’t living alone until they start[ed] their own family.’ Infranca says this means families today are paying a price for the lack of housing for singles. [Marketplace – 08/29/14]
2. Can Broad Housing Coalition Get Real Change from Albany? With almost half of the city living near the poverty line, advocates say that New York is facing its worst housing crisis in recent decades. In April, RAFA proposed a detailed plan to the mayor, calling for a 50-50 housing model where half of the new apartments in rezoned areas will be set aside for moderate-income people and lower-income families. Now the coalition hopes to gain wider support from the mayor and the City Council to lobby the State legislature for policies to create and preserve affordable housing. [City Limits – 09/04/14]
3. Affordable-Housing Developers, Unions to Discuss Wage Proposal Developers also raised a number of significant questions about the proposal, but the letter and a union response offering to meet to discuss the issue open a new round of dialogue between two groups that often have been at odds. Affordable-housing developers have said that employing union workers drives up costs and means that they can build fewer units. To get a foothold in the affordable-housing industry, labor leaders are backing a proposal by liberal allies of Mayor Bill de Blasio to require that half of new housing developed in the city charge below-market rents and be built with union labor, moves that supporters say would mean a cut in profit for developers. [Wall Street Journal – 09/03/14]
4. U.S. Unprepared for Housing Needs of Aging Population High housing costs currently forcea [sic] third of those 50 and older — including 37 percent of people 80 and over — to pay more than 30 percent of their income for homes that may or may not fit their needs, forcing them to cut back on food, health care, and, for those 50-64, retirement savings. Much of the nation’s housing inventory also lacks basic accessi­bility features (such as no-step entries, extra-wide doorways, and lever-style door and faucet handles), preventing older people with disabilities from living safely and comfortably in their homes. [Harvard Gazette – 09/02/14]
5. New Condo Tower Slated to Rise on Greenwich St. Will Be the Tallest Residential Building Downtown A new condo project slated to rise at 125 Greenwich St. site will top 1,356 feet, making it the second tallest building downtown, just shy of its neighbor at One World Trade Center. The building will be developed by former bad boy broker turned developer Michael Shvo alongside real estate company Bizzi & Partners. [New York Daily News – 09/02/14]
6. The “Poor Door” Contradiction (Opinion) Banning separate entrances would reduce projects’ profits and thus curtail the creation of affordable units in thriving neighborhoods. It would be criminal not to build quality housing for thousands of poor families so that a handful might get apartments in luxury buildings. By the same token, it makes no sense to forbid market-rate dwellings at NYCHA sites. The agency’s tenants desperately need the repairs that these apartments would pay for as well as the shared advocacy for better schools, parks and security that wealthier residents would bring. [Crain’s New York Business – 09/03/14]
7. NYC’s Sandy Home Repair Program Starts 535 Projects Build It Back was created in June 2013, following a more basic repair program that was intended to make homes habitable. Build It Back can do more extensive work, including elevating homes above flood level, at no cost to the homeowner; it also can reimburse owners for repairs they did on their own. When de Blasio took office Jan. 1, no households even had complete plans for Build It Back work. In April, he said the city aimed to start 500 repair projects and send 500 reimbursement checks by Labor Day. [Brooklyn Eagle – 09/03/14]
8. Another Shadow in Ferguson as Outside Firms Buy and Rent Out Distressed Homes Increasingly, the new landlord in Ferguson and in other close suburbs of St. Louis is an out-of-state investment firm that has been buying distressed homes to rent them out, a consequence of the foreclosures resulting from the financial crisis. The Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer in Ferguson put a spotlight on the racial divisions in the United States and the tactics used by the police. But some housing advocates said the incident should also focus attention on how towns like Ferguson are still reeling from the financial crisis and how that also has contributed to heightened tensions. [New York TImes – 09/03/14]
9. Overseas Buyers Bidding Up Brooklyn Real estate experts say that more deals from overseas buyers are on the way. A large, roughly $200 million development site on the waterfront in Williamsburg just south of Schaefer Landing that can accommodate 800,000 square feet of residential space, for instance, has attracted several foreign groups. Nearby, along the East River waterfront, Richard Mack, chief executive of Mack Real Estate Group, is courting offers from foreign investment funds to partner with him in a separate $200 million acquisition of a development, where he is planning to build rental apartments. ‘Everyone wants to be in Brooklyn now, and the same is true with foreign buyers,’ Mr. Mack said. Real estate experts say that overseas groups have a key advantage over their domestic rivals. Many of them are willing to take a longer view on their investment, meaning they can accept a lower profit in the near term. They are also willing to pay a premium to park their money in what they see as a stable market almost guaranteed to rise in value over the long haul. [Crain’s New York Business – 09/02/14]
10. The Increasingly Bloated American Dream The size of the average American house has grown consistently, even as the average U.S. household size has decreased. Though the growing size of the American home was dampened by the Great Recession, it’s rebounded in the last three years. The share of new homes with at least four bedrooms grew from 34 percent in 2009 to 48 percent in 2014, according to NAHB. There are more bathrooms, too: 35 percent of single-family homes had three full bathrooms in 2013, up from 23 percent in 2010. The trend is not confined to the suburbs; it’s happening in urban centers, too. [CityLab – 09/04/14]