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Citywide Housing Market Study 2018

Housing Market Study Cover

Background

One tool that more and more communities around the country are using to better understand their context, and help develop more effective housing and community development policy and investment strategy is a community-wide housing market study. 

The practice was pioneered by Reinvestment Fund, a mission-based community development financial institution (CDFI) based in Philadelphia, and has been recognized as a best practice by the Federal Reserve and applied in dozens of communities across the country.

The City of Rochester commissioned a Citywide Housing Market Study as a technical study to help inform development of the City's new Comprehensive Plan, Rochester 2034, and retained czb, LLC - a firm with national expertise based in Alexandria, VA - to perform the analysis.

Documents 

Data

To explore and better understand housing market conditions and patterns across Rochester, this study drew upon a wide range of quantitative and qualitative data sources.

  • Quantitative data sources included American Community Survey (ACS) data from the U.S. Census Bureau as well as extensive local data - most of which was provided at he parcel or address level - on things such as real estate sales, assessment records, property conditions, code enforcement, building permits, lis pendens (bank foreclosure) and tax foreclosure filings, and the location of various housing interventions across the city (e.g., homebuyer grants, affordable housing construction/preservation efforts, etc.)
  • Qualitative data included information gathered through a series of focus groups and interview with more than 50 local experts in housing, community development, real estate, lending, and property management who work across a wide range of sub-markets, populations, and geographies served. An internal City Steering Committee, with staff from Planning, Housing, Project Development, Business Development, Real Estate, Assessment, Law, Code Enforcement, Rehab and Repair, Zoning, Environmental Quality, and Innovation also helped to guide and inform the study.

Contact

For more information, contact Elizabeth Murphy in the Department of Neighborhood and Business Development at elizabeth.murphy@cityofrochester.gov, or 585-428-6813.