New York State Creates Website to Track Housing Growth

by M.C. Millman 

In an effort to track housing growth, the governor's administration created a dashboard that tracks home-building permits approved in every town, village, and city over the past five years based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau data.

The dashboard is meant to help with the housing crisis by sharing currently available housing production data, tracking progress on housing growth in communities across the State, and helping local governments identify challenges by location.

One can search the dashboard by city, town, village, or reservation to find data on a specific area. In Rockland County, there has been little permit activity in Clarkstown, Orangetown, Stony Point, or Haverstraw. On the other hand, the Town of Ramapo is booming. 

Ramapo data shows 290 permits in 2022 (more than half the total permits in the county), 338 permits in 2021, 310 permits in 2020, 219 in 2019, and 180 in 2018. In contrast, Stony Point only had eight home building permits in 2022, five in 2021, one in 2020, five in 2019, and four in 2018. 

Governor Hochul plans to revisit her housing goals in next year's legislative session after her goal to create 800,000 new homes in the State over the next decade to combat the statewide housing shortage was shot down by state legislators vehemently opposed to her plan.

Meanwhile, she has ordered all state entities to review state-owned sites for potential housing and has signed an executive order creating the Pro-Housing Community Program to reward local governments that address New York's housing crisis.