Out of Reach 2024

Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress and its Center for Housing Solutions & Community Initiatives have analyzed rental housing and wage data for more than a decade. Our reports on housing trends help lawmakers, nonprofit agencies, developers, and other stakeholders in their efforts to provide housing that is affordable in the region. Our annual Out of Reach (OOR) report examines the affordability of rental housing throughout the nine counties we serve: Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. This report is largely based on data published annually by the National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC), which compares fair-market rents (FMR) with average renter wages.

Our neighbors across the Hudson Valley have struggled through a deepening crisis of housing availability and affordability for many years. This year’s NLIHC data suggest that this trend is continuing to afflict tenants across a wide spectrum of incomes. Working tenants are struggling even more in 2024 as their wages have dipped and the cost of typical rents increased yet again. Homeownership also remained out of reach for most households in the region. Median-earning households cannot attain enough mortgage to afford a median-priced home in any of our nine counties. Most people who already own their home would not be able to buy their home in today’s market.