Issues & Challenges

The Issues:

  • Long Island is the MOST expensive place to live in the US.1
  • In 2014, the median sale price of a home in Huntington was $525,000 2. To be affordable – i.e., for the cost to be 30% of income – a family would have to earn $175,000 a year to afford this home.
    • Two thirds of Huntington families earn under $150,000 a year, making the median-priced home unaffordable to them.3
    • This is why Suffolk has one of New York State’s highest foreclosure rates.4
  • Typical Suffolk County rents are: $1,395 for a one-bedroom unit and $1,718 for a two bedroom unit 5. In order to afford a two bedroom unit a family must earn $68,720 a year (using the standard that 30% of family income should be spent for housing costs.)
    • Because Huntington rental apartments are scarce and therefore expensive, 54.1% of Huntington renters pay “unaffordable” rents that are more than 30% of their income.6
    • A 2013 study concluded that “the shortage of affordable rental homes is already straining Long Island’s economy, and will make it much harder to compete for jobs in the years ahead.” 7
  • A 2014 study found “a huge exodus of young people, especially from mostly white, higher-income Long Island neighborhoods [like much of Huntington],” due to the lack of affordable rental housing.8

1 https://trove.com/a/The-15-most-expensive-places-to-live-in-America.sS31z

2 http://www.trulia.com/real_estate/Huntington-New_York/

3 http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/3653396.html

4 The New York Times editorial, “Struggling in Suburbia,. July 7, 2012 and Realty Trac, December 2012.

5 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development 2015 Fair Market Rental for Suffolk County.

6 U. S. Census, American Fact Finder, Huntington, 2012.

7 Regional Plan Association, Long Island Community Foundation, Ford Foundation. “Long Island’s Rental Housing Crisis,” September, 2013.

8 Winzenberg, David. “Young, Restless and Getting Out of Here, Fast,” Long Island Business News, February, 2014.