Rent burden rate
Renter households paying ≥30% of household income on gross rent ÷ renter households for which the ratio is computed.
Housing affordability research · ACS 2020–2024 · NYC HPD
How many New York renters are cost-burdened, and where?
A ZIP-code-level look at renter households that spend 30% or more of their income on gross rent, alongside the City's affordable housing production record.
Burden is a spectrum, not a line
Share of renter households in each burden bracket. Brackets above 30% of income stack to the borough's rent-burden rate; the darkest segment (50%+) is severe burden.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024 5-Year Estimates, Table B25070, aggregated from ZCTAs. Denominator excludes households for which burden is "not computed".
Severe rent burden
The subset paying ≥50% of income on gross rent, over the same denominator.
Affordable housing production
HPD "counted" affordable units in projects started since 2014. A measure of policy activity, not of need or of current affordability.
Pressure indices (custom)
Custom research indices built in Homework 4, not official statistics. They give a relative 0–100 ranking among NYC ZIPs, not absolute levels, and do not imply cause and effect.
Reading these data
- Survey estimates vs. administrative counts. Rent burden, renter households and income are ACS survey estimates with sampling error (shown as 90% margins of error). HPD affordable units are administrative counts, which have no sampling error but can be revised.
- Different reference periods. ACS 2024 five-year estimates pool the survey years 2020–2024. HPD activity covers projects started from 2014 to mid-2026.
- What HPD counts. Counted units include both new construction and preservation of existing homes, and both rental and homeownership units.
- ZIP codes ≠ ZCTAs. Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas approximate, but are not identical to, USPS ZIP codes; HPD records are matched on their postal ZIP.
- Association, not causation. Comparisons between production and burden are descriptive. They do not show that low production causes high burden, or that more production would reduce it.
Rent burden
Borough comparison
Borough rates pool counts across ZCTAs (sum of burdened ÷ sum of renter households) — they are not averages of ZIP rates. Error bars show approximate 90% margins of error.
ZIP-level spread within each borough
Each dot is a ZCTA's rent burden rate. Hover for details; the line marks the borough rate.
Source: ACS 2024 5-Year, B25070. 6 ZCTAs with no computed renter households omitted. Hollow dots: Low reliability (CV > 30%) — high statistical uncertainty.
Borough summary table
Excluded Manhattan ZCTAs — optional geographic inclusion comparison
ZCTAs 10162 and 10279 are Manhattan areas that fall outside the Homework 4 ZIP ranges. They are not part of the study population, totals, maps or rankings above. This comparison only shows what including them would change.
Rent burden · ZIP codes
ZIP code explorer
Map areas are Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs), which approximate but do not equal USPS ZIP codes. Select a ZIP on the map, in the search box, or in the table to add it to the comparison.
Comparison
Up to five ZIPs. Bars show rent burden (≥30%) with the severe (≥50%) share inside; hover a bar for its 90% margin of error.
All ZIP codes
Click a column header to sort; click a row to compare.
Income
Household income and rent burden
How median household income relates to the share of rent-burdened renters, citywide and within each borough. Both measures are ACS survey estimates for 2020–2024. Associations describe the data; they are not causal estimates.
Median household income vs. rent burden
Source: ACS 2024 5-Year, Tables B19013 and B25070. Line: ordinary least squares fit for the selected group. Association only — not a causal estimate.
Strength of the association by borough
Pearson correlation and OLS slope of rent burden on median household income across ZIP codes. Top-coded incomes ($250,000+) are excluded, as in HW4.
Computed from the published ZIP data by pipeline/build_data.R (statistics.json). A negative r means higher-income ZIPs tend to have lower rent burden.
Affordable housing
Affordable housing production
HPD's production data records what the City financed or preserved — it is a flow of policy activity. Rent burden is a condition of households at a point in time. The two are measured on different populations and timelines, so a ZIP's production level says nothing by itself about whether burden there rose or fell.
Counted units by borough and type
Source: NYC HPD, Affordable Housing Production by Building (export 2026-10-12). Totals include records without a postcode.
Counted units by income band
Income bands as defined by HPD (share of Area Median Income). "Other" includes units reserved for building superintendents.
Counted units by project start year
Production intensity vs. rent burden, by ZIP
Dashed lines: NYC medians across 179 ZCTAs (HW4). X-axis is square-root scaled. Sources: ACS B25070; NYC HPD.
Affordability pressure
Where high burden meets low housing activity
The affordability pressure index from Homework 4 combines two ranks: how high a ZIP's rent burden is, and how little affordable housing activity HPD has recorded there. It is a custom, relative research indicator — a ranking among NYC ZIP codes, not an official statistic and not a measure of cause and effect. The policy simulator shows how this ranking responds to hypothetical increases in housing activity.
Rankings: HW4 baseline and exploratory alternative
Policy simulator · what-if analysis
What if affordable housing activity increased?
The sections above are descriptive: they show where rent burden is high and where recorded affordable housing activity is low. This tool adds a prescriptive, scenario-based view. Choose a hypothetical increase in affordable housing units per 1,000 renter households and the ZIP codes that receive it, and see how the affordability pressure index would be recalculated.
Before vs. after
Current pressure index, the index recalculated under the scenario, and the change. Outlined areas receive the hypothetical increase. Hover for details.
Hatched: no renter households with computed burden (not ranked). Excluded Manhattan ZCTAs 10162 and 10279 are not shown. Sources: ACS 2024 5-Year B25070; NYC HPD (export 2026-10-12).
Largest changes
The five largest decreases, then the five largest increases among ZIPs that receive nothing. ⚠ marks small samples or Low reliability.
Top 10 before and after
Highest pressure index, current vs. scenario.
How the simulation works and what it assumes
- Same formula as Homework 4. The index is recomputed in your browser from the published counts: rank of rent burden (high→low) plus rank of HPD units per 1,000 renter households (low→high), rescaled to 0–100. The page checks that its current values match the published HW4 index exactly.
- What changes: only the activity measure of the selected ZIPs, which increases by the chosen number of units per 1,000 renter households. The renter household denominator is the ACS 2020–2024 estimate.
- What does not change: rent burden, incomes, rents and renter households. The tool assumes no effect of new units on burden, because the data cannot tell us what that effect would be.
- The index is relative. Improving some ZIPs moves others up the ranking even though nothing changed there, and a uniform increase everywhere changes nothing. Use the change map to see this re-ranking.
- Scale. "Hypothetical additional units" multiplies the increase by each ZIP's estimated renter households ÷ 1,000. It is a size reference, not a cost or feasibility estimate. HPD counts both new construction and preservation.
- Uncertainty. ZIP rankings inherit sampling error from the ACS estimates. Small ZIPs (⚠) can move a lot for statistical reasons alone.
Policy context
Connecting the analysis to real policy
Housing laws, programs and grants that relate to rent burden and affordable housing production. Entries appear here only after they have been checked against an official source;
until then each category shows a placeholder. Content is maintained in docs/content/policy.json.
Methodology
Research & methodology
Research log
Research log
Each assignment is integrated only after its files are inspected and its numbers reproduced. New modules are appended here — earlier analyses are kept, not overwritten.