Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance
John Ketcham testified in a hearing titled Restoring Prosperity in American Communities: Examining the Failures of Status Quo Housing Policy.
Chairman Davidson and honorable members of the Subcommittee on Housing and Insurance,thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is John Ketcham, and I am a fellow and director of cities at the Manhattan Institute (MI), where my colleagues and I produce research and advocacy aimed at keeping America and its great cities prosperous, safe, and free.
The New York City metropolitan area is an economic powerhouse, contributing over $2.1 trillion to U.S. GDP. With approximately 8.3 million residents in the city limits and nearly 20 million in the wider metropolitan statistical area, New York City plays a major role in the nation’s economic, social, and political life. Throughout its 400-year history, the city has provided countless opportunities to immigrants and natives alike, helping to shape the concept of what it means to be an American and achieve the American dream.
But New York’s promise is under grave threat from its ever-worsening housing affordability and supply crisis. Just this month, the New York Housing and Vacancy Survey revealed that the city’s overall rental vacancy rate plunged to 1.4 percent, the lowest level since 1968.3 For units with a monthly rent of $1,650 or less, that rate drops to a vanishing 0.65 percent.4 Spiraling rents and housing prices effectively tell those who dream of making it in New York that the city has
no room for their dreams.
Click here to read the full testimony.
______________________
John Ketcham is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
Are you interested in supporting the Manhattan Institute’s public-interest research and journalism? As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, donations in support of MI and its scholars’ work are fully tax-deductible as provided by law (EIN #13-2912529).