1999 Report: Reducing the Cost of
New Housing Construction in New York City
This report contains the results of a 1999 investigation into two related questions: (1) to what extent does the cost of building housing in New York City exceed the cost of construction in other large American cities and (2) what steps can government and the private sector take to reduce the cost of housing development. Click here for the 2005 Update to this report.
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The executive summary can be accessed in HTML or PDF format:
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The full report can be accessed in PDF format:
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Download the report chapter by chapter in PDF format :
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Download Section 1 (Contains cover, Table of Contents, Introduction, and Executive Summary)
Download Section 2 (Contains overview of housing problems in New York and analysis of construction costs across cities.)
Download Section 3 (Contains New York City cost factors: availability of land, brownfields, rent regulation, environmental regulation, and zoning.)
Download Section 4 (Contains New York City cost factors: land use reveiw process, building codes, permit approval, taxes and fees, and labor.)
Download Section 5 (Contains New York City cost factors: extortion and illegal practices; estimates of cost saving attributable to recommendations, and final summary of recommendations.)
Download Section 6 (Contains Appendices: professionals consulted, floorplans, prototype of cost estimates, past reports, comparison of environmental and zoning regulations, calculation assumptions.)