City's Homeownership Rates Among Lowest in U.S.

A new Report on Homeownership & Opportunity in New York City by the NYU Furman Center contains this piece of stop-the-presses news: “The New York City real estate market is expensive.” And this: “The median city sales price of $575,700 was only affordable to high-income households.”

But the report goes beyond its keen grasp of the obvious to add some startling statistics: at 18 percent, the Bronx has the second lowest homeownership rate of all counties in the U.S. It’s followed closely by Manhattan at 23 percent and Brooklyn at 28 percent.

Staten Island, in sharp contrast, has a homeownership rate of 68 percent, which is above the national average of 63 percent. The citywide rate of homeownership is just 31 percent, slightly less than half the national average.

The relatively few 2014 sales affordable to households earning less than $55,000 annually were outside Manhattan – primarily in eastern Queens, the north Bronx, and the north shore of Staten Island.

Maybe it’s time for Manhattan to adopt a new official motto: “Get rich or get out.”