“Unlike many housing programs that depend on uncertain federal funding, the Affordable Housing Retention Act is a state-level solution that ensures lasting affordability.”

An apartment building in Brooklyn. Photo by Adi Talwar.

New York City’s housing crisis is no longer a distant threat—it is an urgent reality reshaping the lives of countless residents.

As the cost of living skyrockets, working families are being priced out of their neighborhoods as once-affordable rental units transition to market rates. At Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County, we witness the devastating impact of this crisis every day. Families who have lived in their homes for decades suddenly face impossible rent hikes. Renters who have diligently saved for a home find themselves priced out of the city entirely.

But there is hope. A new proposal before the State Legislature, the Affordable Housing Retention Act (S1354/A4954), sponsored by State Senator Cordell Cleare and Assemblymember Harvey Epstein, offers a groundbreaking market-driven solution to preserve affordability and expand homeownership opportunities for working families. And New Yorkers overwhelmingly support it.

Unlike many housing programs that depend on uncertain federal funding, the Affordable Housing Retention Act is a state-level solution that ensures lasting affordability. It accomplishes two crucial goals: preserving expiring affordable rental units and creating a viable path to homeownership. This proposal would grant both market-rate and affordable renters in qualifying buildings the opportunity to purchase their homes, helping them build equity and stay rooted in their communities.

With renters making up 70 percent of New York City residents, concerns about the future of affordable housing are widespread. A recent poll conducted by The Parkside Group on behalf of Habitat NYC and Westchester found that of the 800 voters surveyed, more than 80 percent support this plan.

After learning additional details—such as how the proposal would ensure long-term affordability for at-risk apartments and allow landlords and developers of qualified buildings to sell units directly to renters interested in homeownership—support increased to 86 percent, with a staggering 75-point margin between supporters and opponents. These numbers send an unmistakable message: New Yorkers want immediate legislative action.

The stakes are high. Thousands of affordable housing units are at risk of becoming market-rate, making them unaffordable to the very families who rely on them. The numbers paint a stark picture: 69 percent of renters say they do not own a home because it is simply too expensive. Nearly half of renters expect to leave the city in search of homeownership opportunities elsewhere. Two-thirds of renters aspire to own a home in their current neighborhood, yet only one in three believe it will ever happen. With housing costs spiraling out of reach—averaging $900,000 for a single-family home—this bill presents a critical opportunity to reverse the tide.

New York City is in the midst of an unprecedented housing crisis—one that will only worsen if affordable units are lost and become market-rate. In some cases, this shift could lead to rent increases of up to 10 times the current cost. That is simply unacceptable. The Affordable Housing Retention Act provides a fair, sustainable way to protect affordability while fostering new opportunities for homeownership.

New Yorkers have spoken, and their message is clear: they demand real solutions to the housing crisis—and they demand them now. The time for action is long overdue. Albany must heed the voices of working families and pass this common-sense legislation before more New Yorkers are forced out of the communities they love.

Sabrina Lippman is the CEO of Habitat for Humanity NYC and Westchester County.

The post Opinion: A Common-Sense Solution to New York City’s Affordable Housing Crisis appeared first on City Limits.

By Holden Lewis, NerdWallet

Want to be a successful home buyer this spring and summer? Act decisively and swiftly, whether your market is hot or cool.

That’s the advice from real estate agents in Boston (a hot, fast-selling market where buyers tussle over scarce houses) and in Dallas (a cooler, slower-selling market where competition isn’t so frenzied).

We’re entering the time of year when the sales pace picks up even in sedate housing markets. Around 4 million existing homes will be sold in 2025, and roughly half of them will change hands from April through August.

In the five years since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, demand has exceeded supply in most housing markets. That imbalance still exists in the hotter markets of New England, the Upper Midwest and much of California. The shortfall has eased (but not gone away) in some cities, notably in Florida, Texas, the Gulf coast and the Pacific Northwest — those are the cooler markets.

Real estate agents’ advice this homebuying season is consistent, no matter the temperature of the local market: Treat the search like a job. Get preapproved for a mortgage.

And remember that desirable houses go fast.

The race goes to the swift

“Properties that are move-in ready — they’re still flying off the market in a matter of days with multiple offers,” says Rich Rosa, a buyer’s agent and co-founder of Buyers Brokers Only in the Boston area (one of the nation’s hottest markets). Houses sold there in February had typically been on the market for 33 days, according to Realtor.com, making it one of the fastest-selling metro areas. Nationally, time on market ranged from a low of 22 days in San Jose to 118 days in Kalispell, Montana.

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Kate Ziegler, a real estate agent with Arborview Realty in the Boston area, says it’s important to prioritize house-hunting on the weekends when you’re seriously searching. Relaxation might have to take a backseat to the job of finding a house.

“Being ready to see things the first weekend that they’re on the market really is important,” Ziegler says. If you don’t tour an attractive house this weekend, it might be gone before you can look at it next weekend, she says.

It’s not unusual for a Boston house to hit the market on Thursday morning, have multiple showings over the weekend, and for the sellers to request offers by Monday evening. Then the seller accepts one of several competing offers. Elapsed time: less than a week. You might find compressed timelines in other hot markets, too.

Buyers can take more time in cooler markets such as Dallas-Fort Worth, where the typical home had been on the market 56 days when it was sold in February. Even so, well-maintained properties are sold quickly. “You need to jump on the good houses because they’re going to sell, period,” says Cliff Freeman, a real estate agent with eXp Realty in Dallas.

Secure a preapproval to show sellers you’re prepared

It’s always a good idea to get preapproved for a mortgage when you shop for a home, whether sellers or buyers have the upper hand. When you get a preapproval, the lender takes your financial information, including credit score and income, and tells you how much you can borrow.

Not only does a mortgage preapproval show you how much home you can afford — it signals to sellers that you’ve rustled up your financial documents and a lender has already assessed your creditworthiness.

Freeman says one sign of having an experienced agent is that they will make sure you’ve talked to a lender. “Especially for first-time home buyers, and second and move-up buyers, having a true professional that has experience in several types of markets is the best asset you can have,” he says.

Don’t get hung up on asking price

You probably won’t pay the asking price for your next house. If the property attracts multiple offers in the first week or two, you might pay more than the asking price (if you make the successful bid). If the home lingers on the market for weeks without any serious offers, you might pay less than the asking price.

“What I tell my clients is don’t get too caught up in what the asking price is,” Rosa says. Pricing strategies vary from seller to seller, and every property is different. Just because one place sells for 3% more than the asking price doesn’t mean other houses will too.

An experienced agent who understands your local market can be an advantage here too.

In hot markets, consider fast-tracking the inspection

Buyers often waived property inspections in 2020 and 2021, when mortgage rates were low and competition was fierce. Today, most buyers insist on property inspections. But in fast markets, buyers can employ a few tactics to mollify sellers.

One such tactic is the “pre-offer inspection,” in which an inspector examines the house before the buyer makes an offer. “So you’re effectively submitting a ‘clean’ offer without an inspection contingency because you’ve already done inspection,” Ziegler says.

As an agent, Ziegler says she tries to avoid pre-offer inspections because they can be less thorough — and the buyer pays the inspector whether or not they end up making an offer on the house. The benefit of a pre-offer inspection is that it reassures the seller that this buyer won’t back out if their offer is accepted.

In another inspection-related tactic, the buyer promises to pay for repairs up to a specified dollar amount instead of expecting the seller to pay every penny. Ziegler calls it a partial inspection contingency; the goal is to avoid giving the seller the perception that they’re being nickel-and-dimed. “It mitigates the buyer’s risk and sort of caps what they are exposed to,” Ziegler says, while assuring sellers that the buyer won’t withdraw their offer over minor defects.

However you do it, make sure you do get a home inspection.

In growing areas, consider new homes

In some cities, new construction could be a solid option. We’re talking mostly about metros in the South and Southwest where developers build communities of hundreds of new houses. To make new homes affordable, developers often offer incentives such as reductions in mortgage interest rates.

“The reality is for first-time home buyers, it’s probably a great decision to buy a new home,” Freeman says, because a well-built new house won’t require expensive repairs or upgrades in the first few years.

Take a real estate agent with you the first time you look at a community of new houses, Freeman advises. The agent can help you negotiate discounts on mortgage rates or upgraded amenities.

Holden Lewis writes for NerdWallet. Email: hlewis@nerdwallet.com.

The article Homebuying Tips This Season for Markets Hot and Cold originally appeared on NerdWallet.

Hear directly from mayoral candidates about their plans and positions ahead of the June 24 primary election, with a discussion focused on NYCHA and family homelessness.

New York City’s mayoral race is heating up, with an especially crowded field of Democratic contenders in the upcoming June 24 primary. The winner that day—who will be selected via ranked-choice voting, in which New Yorkers can select up to five candidates by order of preference—will go on to compete in the November general election (when they’ll be expected to face off against Republican Curtis Sliwa and Independent Jim Walden, so far).

On Monday, April 7, join City Limits and our co-hosts for a mayoral forum focused on two subjects that are often overlooked on the campaign trail—NYCHA and family homelessness. The event will take place at Manhattan Neighborhood Network, in partnership with the National Public Housing Network and the Family Homelessness Coalition.

Our next mayor will face significant challenges on both fronts: The public housing system is need of an estimated $78 billion in capital repairs over the next two decades, while the number of people staying in the city’s homeless shelters has surpassed 125,000 for nearly the last two years, and includes tens of thousands of children. President Donald Trump’s efforts to slash federal staffing, and spending, are expected to impact both NYCHA and local affordable housing initiatives, including rental vouchers for formerly homeless residents.

At the upcoming event, we’ll probe the candidates about their plans for:

funding repairs in public housing, including their positions on programs like PACT and the Preservation Trust;

addressing quality-of-life issues at NYCHA and increasing transparency for tenants;

expanding affordable housing options for low-income New Yorkers;

homeless shelter conditions and policies;

expanding access to rental vouchers and other pathways to safe, permanent housing, & more.

Confirmed candidates so far include: City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams, former State Assemblymember Michael Blake, State Senator Zellnor Myrie, State Senator Jessica Ramos, former NYC Comptroller Scott Stringer, and former hedge fund manager Whitney Tilson. (We’ve also extended invitations to incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, City Comptroller Brad Lander and State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani, and will update this post if additional candidates sign on).

The event is free and open to the public, though space is limited, so please RSVP here.

Want to suggest a question for the candidates? Email editor@citylimits.org.

The post Join Us April 7: Mayoral Candidate Forum on NYCHA & Family Homelessness appeared first on City Limits.

By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department leadership is proposing combining the two agencies responsible for enforcing drug and gun laws as part of a dramatic restructuring of the department, according to a memo reviewed by The Associated Press.

The memo from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche seeks feedback on a reorganization plan that would combine the Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives into a single agency “to achieve efficiencies in resources, case deconfliction, and regulatory efforts.”

It’s part of a broader push by the Trump administration to shrink and reshape the federal government that has already led to a slew of legal challenges. President Donald Trump has directed agencies to develop plans for eliminating employee positions and consolidating programs.

Perhaps the most sweeping part of the Justice Department’s plan is a push to merge the DEA and ATF, which often work together along with the FBI but are both led by separate directors and are tasked with distinctly different missions. The memo included no details about how the two agencies would be combined, or whether some of the agents would be eliminated.

The ATF investigates things like violent crime, gun trafficking, arson and bombings. It also provides technical expertise tracing guns used in crimes and analyzing intelligence in shooting investigations. The DEA, meanwhile, is in charge of enforcing the nation’s laws around drugs. Its agents are focused on combating criminal drug networks and stemming the illicit flow of fentanyl and other street drugs.

Questions have been raised about the future of the ATF after FBI Director Kash Patel — in an unusual arrangement — was tapped to simultaneously serve as acting leader of the gun law agency. The ATF has long drawn the ire of conservatives for its role in gun regulation.

The Justice Department plan also calls for combining policy offices in Washington and eliminating certain field offices around the country that work on things like antitrust and environmental matters.

Tax division lawyers as well as employees in the section that handles public corruption cases would be reassigned to U.S. attorneys offices, except for a “core team of supervisory attorneys” that would remain in Washington, according to the proposal.

The AP reported earlier this month that lawyers in the public integrity section, which oversees public corruption cases, were told they will be asked to take new assignments in the department and as few as five lawyers may remain in the unit.

A Justice Department spokesperson didn’t immediately provide a comment on the plan, which is not been finalized. Heads of Justice Department agencies were instructed to respond with any concerns about the proposals by April 2.