Rental Vacancy Rate Study - A Survey for the City of Kingston, NY

In 2019, New York State expanded an option for municipalities to regulate apartment rents from the New York City metropolitan area to the entire state. The City of Kingston, the first upstate municipality to explore this option, retained CGR to conduct an apartment vacancy rate study to determine if the City was eligible to impose rent stabilization under the state Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA). CGR modeled its approach after similar ETPA studies conducted in downstate municipalities and by the U.S. Census Bureau in New York City. Our team conducted a mail survey of owners whose properties that would be directly affected by ETPA regulations, followed by a series of in-person visits to each property, tenant interviews, and phone calls to owners and managers. CGR ultimately gathered vacancy information on 61 properties with 1,600 units, representing 89% of all units in the relevant properties. CGR found that these properties had a vacancy rate of 6.7%, above the threshold to impose rent stabilization (less than 5%). Our final report suggested ways the City could track occupancy and vacancy information in the future through an existing rental registration and inspection program.

Report Date: Feb 2020
Author(s): Paul Bishop , David Riley , Kieran Bezila
Subject(s): Surveys & Analysis , Government Reorganization/Dissolution , Census Data Interpretation
Location: Ulster, New York

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