Housing Blogs & Reports

Equity and Environmental Justice in Regional Flood Mobility Programs

October 31st, 2024|Comments Off on Equity and Environmental Justice in Regional Flood Mobility Programs

By Melissa Tier   New Jersey’s Climate Change Resilience Strategy calls on the state and local governments to “support and incentivize movement to safer areas” for “populations in areas subject to repetitive flooding or inundation,” [...]

Unlocking Energy Efficiency: A Data-Driven Exploration of PACE Bond Issuance in California

October 28th, 2024|Comments Off on Unlocking Energy Efficiency: A Data-Driven Exploration of PACE Bond Issuance in California

By Ruth Winecoff   This is the second in a series describing ongoing research on Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). PACE, which uses local governments’ ability to borrow to pay the upfront costs of energy [...]

  • Historic mansion in Batsto Village in Southern New Jersey. Making Sense of New Jersey Parcel Data to Identify Trends in Corporate Ownership of Housing

Making Sense of New Jersey Parcel Data to Identify Trends in Corporate Ownership of Housing

September 26th, 2024|Comments Off on Making Sense of New Jersey Parcel Data to Identify Trends in Corporate Ownership of Housing

By Eric Seymour This second blog on our team’s research on corporate investor ownership of residential properties in New Jersey addresses the methods used and the techniques developed so far. While New Jersey provides a [...]

Investigating Corporate Ownership of Housing in New Jersey

July 29th, 2024|Comments Off on Investigating Corporate Ownership of Housing in New Jersey

By Eric Seymour   Corporate ownership of housing has been on the rise in the U.S. over the past decade, raising concerns about the impacts of this shift for both renters and would-be homebuyers. This [...]

Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study

April 8th, 2024|Comments Off on Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study

By Sania Murtuza, Vibha Venkataraman, Tai Vu, & Yao Sun, Ph.D. Guided by the theoretical and practical frameworks from the literature, the research team led efforts to specify neighborhoods in New Jersey [...]

Sustainable Assisted Living Programs in New Jersey 

March 7th, 2024|Comments Off on Sustainable Assisted Living Programs in New Jersey 

By Ayse Akincigil. Many seniors in publicly subsidized housing need support services like chronic condition monitoring, medication management, and assistance with certain activities of living. Without such help, they risk [...]

Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study

February 12th, 2024|Comments Off on Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-Based Crowdsourcing Study

By Yao Sun, Ph.D., Avanish Kulkarni, & Sania Murtuza. As the global emphasis on sustainability grows everyday— it is crucial to assess different alternatives for energy that does not require the burning of fossil fuels and nonrenewable energies in general [...]

  • A sunny photo of a one-story house with solar panels installed on the roof

Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-based Crowdsourcing Study

October 23rd, 2023|Comments Off on Examining Low-Income Community Solar Program and Energy Justice in New Jersey: An AI-based Crowdsourcing Study

By Yao Sun. The 2019 New Jersey Energy Master Plan: Pathway to 2050 mentioned that the state’s Clean Energy Act commitments include, “Developing a community solar program that allows more state residents to benefit from solar energy [...]

New Jersey Ranks First in Income, but Housing Costs Take a Hefty Share Especially for those with Lower Incomes

October 2nd, 2023|Comments Off on New Jersey Ranks First in Income, but Housing Costs Take a Hefty Share Especially for those with Lower Incomes

By William Irving. Data released earlier this month from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey show that New Jersey now tops the list of states with the highest incomes in the country [...]

  • Summer Intern Presentations
  • 2023 NJSPL Summer Interns - Sofia Wernyj, Jesskomar Velarde Gargot, Maia Hill, Ciera Gaither, Xiao Liang, Taylor Hughes, Christopher Gomes, and Anisaa Jean-Pierre
  • 2023 NJSPL Summer Internship Program - Josephine O'Grady, Jesskomar Velarde Gargot, Sofia Wernyj, Dr. Elizabeth Cooner, Maia Hill, Ciera Gaither, Xiao Liang, Taylor Hughes, Christopher Gomes, Anisaa Jean-Pierre, and Molly Basdeo Mountjoy

New Jersey State Policy Lab Summer Internship Summit

August 18th, 2023|Comments Off on New Jersey State Policy Lab Summer Internship Summit

The New Jersey State Policy Lab held the 2023 Summer Internship presentations at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy on August 17, 2023. The eight summer interns each presented [...]

  • NJ Education & Tax Rates

Property Tax Rates and Quality of K-12 Education in New Jersey Communities

January 17th, 2023|Comments Off on Property Tax Rates and Quality of K-12 Education in New Jersey Communities

by James Barnett New Jersey is consistent in featuring at the top of the ranks for two different variables: effective real estate property tax rates and quality of K-12 education services.[1][2] These, unsurprisingly to most [...]

  • New Jersey MOD Database

Introducing the New Jersey MOD IV Historical Database

January 9th, 2023|Comments Off on Introducing the New Jersey MOD IV Historical Database

By Marc Pfeiffer and Lucas Marxen The NJ MOD IV Historical Database is an online, searchable database of New Jersey MOD IV parcel information data sets from 1989 to 2022.  Providing land parcel and property [...]

  • Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP)

Heat or Eat? The Low-Income Home Energy Distribution Program (LIHEAP) and Its Implications for New Jersey

November 17th, 2022|Comments Off on Heat or Eat? The Low-Income Home Energy Distribution Program (LIHEAP) and Its Implications for New Jersey

By Josephine O'Grady. The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance program (LIHEAP) is a federal block grant program that assists low-income families with the cost of paying their utility bills in areas including extreme heat and cold, household revisions to improve energy efficiency [...]

Report Release: Does the Decision to Allow Local Cannabis-Related Businesses Impact Home Sale Prices?

September 1st, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: Does the Decision to Allow Local Cannabis-Related Businesses Impact Home Sale Prices?

By Michael S. Hayes, Associate Professor, Rutgers University-Camden and Prakash Kandel, Ph.D. Student, Rutgers University-Camden. During the 2020 general election, New Jersey voters approved a ballot question to amend the state constitution to allow residents [...]

Housing Affordability in New Jersey, 2010-2020

July 11th, 2022|Comments Off on Housing Affordability in New Jersey, 2010-2020

by Maia de la Calle. Rutgers Economic Advisory Service (R/ECON™) Housing affordability and ownership accessibility The main expense incurred by New Jersey’s residents is shelter or housing.  As of 2019, New Jersey ranked third in [...]

The Revival of Urban Enterprise Zones in New Jersey

May 26th, 2022|Comments Off on The Revival of Urban Enterprise Zones in New Jersey

By Adam Scavette Last summer, then acting New Jersey Governor Sheila Oliver signed legislation to devote $42.5 million toward restoring the state’s Urban Enterprise Zones (UEZ) to full operation for fiscal year 2022. In this [...]

  • Dutch colonial house

New Jersey’s Single-Family Housing Markets by County 2021

March 31st, 2022|Comments Off on New Jersey’s Single-Family Housing Markets by County 2021

Naheed Azhar and Michael L. Lahr, Rutgers Economic Advisory Service (R/Econ™) As the count of listings and asking prices flattened,[i] realtors and creditors predicted a rise in foreclosures and mortgage delinquencies as people were laid [...]

  • Rent relief sign and almost empty jar with money.

Report Release: The New Jersey Housing Crisis in a COVID Era

February 24th, 2022|Comments Off on Report Release: The New Jersey Housing Crisis in a COVID Era

By Katharine Nelson. Affordable housing is increasingly scarce within the United States, and COVID-19 has dramatically exacerbated the simmering crisis in affordable housing. In New Jersey, the risk of eviction is greater than across the country [...]

  • New Jersey Magnified

Our First Report: Encouraging Activation of Vacant Commercial Properties

February 11th, 2022|Comments Off on Our First Report: Encouraging Activation of Vacant Commercial Properties

The New Jersey State Policy Lab is publishing our first report, Vacant Commercial Property in New Jersey: Causes and Solutions, written by Michael Hayes and Pengju Zhang. The economic recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an increase in vacant [...]

A Primer on Housing Markets with a Bird’s Eye View on New Jersey’s

January 11th, 2022|Comments Off on A Primer on Housing Markets with a Bird’s Eye View on New Jersey’s

By Michael L. Lahr, R/ECON™ Housing markets are not just geographically separated, they are socially stratified too (in combination the two generate what is termed, “housing market segmentation”). Properties in a region can differ radically [...]

  • Old Buildings in the Historic Downtown of Jersey City with Modern Skyscrapers in the background

Vacant Commercial Property in New Jersey: Causes and Solutions

January 6th, 2022|Comments Off on Vacant Commercial Property in New Jersey: Causes and Solutions

Michael S. Hayes and Pengju Zhang The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated changes in investment decisions throughout the economy. For example, the growth in virtual work and e-commerce has likely negatively impacted the demand for some [...]

  • An American flag hanging outside a row of old beautiful red brick homes in the Hamilton Park neighborhood of Jersey City New Jersey

The New Jersey Housing Crisis in a COVID Era – Project Update

November 5th, 2021|Comments Off on The New Jersey Housing Crisis in a COVID Era – Project Update

Samantha Roth  Samantha Roth is a Master of Public Administration Student at the School of Public Affairs and Administration at Rutgers University-Newark. She is a research assistant with support from the New Jersey Policy Lab [...]