Source: Connect CRE

Date Published: 06.24.2026

Link: NMHC, NYU Release Roadmap for Addressing Affordability Challenges

Research from NYU Urban Lab produced in partnership with the National Multifamily Housing Council forms the basis of the Housing Affordability Toolkit, a roadmap concluding that the nation’s rental affordability crisis can be closed within 17 years through coordinated policy action. The toolkit finds that the affordability crisis isn’t one problem but several, spanning 10.1 million subsidy-dependent households that private markets alone will never serve to millions more burdened by simple undersupply, and notes that regulatory costs alone account for more than 40 percent of the cost of building a new apartment. Addressing the roughly 22.4 million rent-burdened U.S. households (about half of all renters) requires a three-part strategy combining deregulation (such as streamlining development timelines and reducing barriers to construction), targeted affordability support/subsidies, and preservation of lower-cost, non-subsidized housing including naturally occurring affordable housing; NYU Urban Lab argues that with this balanced combination of tools, the math shows the affordability gap can realistically be closed within a generation rather than being treated as a permanently unsolvable problem.