HOUSING ONONDAGA

Onondaga County, NY

how well matched is a county's housing supply to its changing market?

SUMMARY

Onondaga County is Central New York's largest county, with the City of Syracuse sitting in its center. czb's work in Syracuse identified a number of critical urban housing issues, but the surrounding area faces its own challenges related to affordability for low-income households, as well as a changing market where the number of older and smaller households are on the rise. The county's existing housing supply, as well as newly built housing, may not be well matched to the households of the future, and this could be exacerbated by growing housing demand stemming from the development of a Micron Technologies chip fabrication facility. The housing analysis built upon the foundations of the county's new comprehensive plan and czb's work in the City of Syracuse, identifying the city's weak market, a history of suburban sprawl, changing suburban demographics, and unmet rental housing needs as housing challenges to address in the coming decades.

HOUSING ONONDAGA (PDF)

HOUSING ONONDAGA EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (PDF)

Meeting housing needs means leaving behind business as usual when it comes to planning and development.

Suburban areas of Onondaga County have traditionally been dominated by single-family detached home ownership. The analysis illustrates the extent to which traditional homebuying households, including married couple families with children, are on the decline, and the number of elderly homeowners is rising as longtime owners age into their golden years. Furthermore, the majority of suburban household growth has been among renter households. Suburban housing markets will need to adapt to this changing demographic landscape.

The imminent arrival of the Micron chip fabrication facility drives expectations of higher future housing demand, but the growing trend of smaller household sizes, along with a tight suburban rental market, suggests that newly built housing should be tilted toward rental units and toward smaller unit sizes. Accommodating a changing market, while growing smart in the suburbs and supporting revitalization inside the City of Syracuse, will require all local governments in the county to reexamine their traditional approach to housing development. The analysis recommended that Onondaga County and key municipalities in the county work together to adjust planning, zoning, and housing programs to better meet the identified needs.

Understanding a large complex county housing market by dividing it into smaller pieces.

Onondaga County is home to nearly a half million people living in nearly 200,000 households across 34 separate political jurisdictions. Furthermore, its core city and its surrounding suburbs are distinctly different markets. The analysis presented data and discussion separately for the City of Syracuse and the rest of the county, and broke the rest of the county into sub-regions so that officials at the local level in towns and villages could find their place within the larger regional market picture.