
For 2020, the AMI in the New York City region for a three-person family is $102,400 (100% AMI). Based on how much you earn relative to your AMI, your housing costs will vary. It’s impossible to talk about affordable housing without understanding the area median income (AMI), which is the measurement the city uses to determine who is eligible for affordable housing. Applicants receive priority codes ranging from domestic violence victims to victims of felonies that affect their application status, with homeless families receiving the highest Created with Sketch.ġ What Are the Income Requirements for the NYC Housing Lottery? It is also vital to note that NYCHA has strict income limits, and the application process is not a lottery. While NYC Housing Connect and the Mitchell Lama program run through private buildings monitored by the government, NYCHA buildings are public housing. You might also be familiar with the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA), a completely separate agency from HPD, responsible for another important branch of the city’s affordable housing options. At best, you’ll need to have 10% right away, and at worst, you’ll need to pay for the entire apartment upfront. One more potential pain point for HDFC buyers is the down payment. So apartments like these are not investment properties. Also, you have to price your unit within a predetermined range. The latter means you’ll have to pay a percentage fee when you sell, which can be up to a shocking 30% of the list price. They also have flip taxes and price caps on apartments. Like affordable rentals, HDFCs have specific income requirements calculated by the area median income (more on that shortly). Where’s my time machine?īut there are several catches to these affordable apartments. At the time units sold for a shockingly low price of $250. These HDFC units harken back to the ’70s when the government starting seizing and then fixing up abandoned and dilapidated buildings. HDFC: Affordable Apartments for PurchaseĪlthough undoubtedly not as numerous as rentals, the lottery also includes apartments for purchase, known as Housing Development Fund Corporation cooperatives, or HDFC co-ops. Not bad for apartments starting at $1,101. These gleaming new rentals - like Kent House in Brooklyn - can feature amenities like stainless steel appliances, dishwashers, and killer views. (From a listing at 187 Kent Ave.)Ĭourtesy of NYC’s Inclusionary Housing Program, many new residential buildings offer some affordable units, via housing lotteries. HPD hopes to ultimately streamline the Mitchell-Lama units into the NYC Housing Connect platform in the Created with Sketch.ġ The NYC Apartment Lottery Offers New Rentals The Kent House is another newly constructed building with lottery apartments. Many of these units are now market-rate apartments thanks to an option that allowed buildings to leave the program after a certain number of years. It built approximately 135,000 affordable housing units over 23 years. The Mitchell-Lama program, named after two senators, was created to serve middle-income families. In addition to NYC Housing Connect - the portal that streamlines many affordable lottery units - there’s also the lesser-known Mitchell-Lama program, which has its own website. There Are Two NYC Housing Lottery Sites Peter Cooper Village was once a Mitchell-Lama lottery building. Although this sounds like a tall order in New York, where rents veer toward astronomical, the city has a variety of initiatives to make such units available. Although “affordable” means different things to different people, the HPD defines affordable housing as a unit that costs approximately one-third of a resident’s income.
