Tonight at the Rose Café, I had the pleasure to attend a talk by Lisa Nicholas, a senior planner for the City of Ithaca. During her talk she mentioned that Ithaca is thriving in many areas, except in the area of living costs.

When thinking of cities likely to have the least affordable rental housing, New York City is a good bet. It only makes sense that the financial capital of the United States would be an expensive place to live. So I thought it was very surprising that Ithaca would rank to be one of the top cities where rents are highest relative to median gross income. 

The simplest explanation that Lisa Nicholas gave for why Ithaca’s rental housing market is skewed is supply and demand.

One of things that makes rentals expensive in Ithaca is that the supply of rental units is really limited. Thanks to a constant stream of renters supplied by Ithaca College and Cornell University students, landlords in Ithaca find themselves with very few vacancies. Nicholas stated that the current rental market in Ithaca has a vacancy rate of less than 1 percent. A desirable vacancy rate in a real estate market is typically 5 percent. In addition to increasing rent, a housing market that prioritizes a student population leaves the rest of Ithaca’s rental market in the dark. 

Not only is the presence of Ithaca College and Cornell University dictating the city’s housing trends, the institutions also create jobs. This brings new faces to Ithaca looking for a place to live, and Nicholas shared that the majority of people that work in Ithaca, commute, because of the limited housing. It would be more beneficial for the city if they lived in Ithaca, and she predicted that many would if they had the means.

Overall, it was a very interesting talk about something that everyone at Cornell could relate to.