Newburgh, NY

Housing | 2025

Analyzing the relationship between corporate property ownership and neighborhood gentrification and displacement.

The increased involvement of corporations and private equity firms in the Hudson Valley real estate market is associated with heightened gentrification and displacement in the region. In cities like Newburgh, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, and Hudson, corporate interests are consolidating control of properties, driving home prices up and out of reach for many tenants, and making it exceedingly difficult for first-time homebuyers to enter the market and access generational wealth. As part of its mission to promote regional, equitable, and sustainable solutions to improve quality of life in the region’s communities, Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress plans to assess the relationship between corporate ownership and housing challenges to increase public knowledge and inform policy.

Along with partners from the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy and Inside Airbnb, Pattern for Progress will analyze parcel data to understand the extent, rate of increase, and spatial patterns of corporate ownership across Ulster, Orange, Columbia, Dutchess, and Sullivan Counties. The staff will incorporate data from the US Census Bureau to identify correlating trends in homeownership and host listening sessions to unearth the experiences of residents living in areas with a high concentration of commercialized housing. Pattern for Progress will publish a report and a data dashboard and share its findings at public meetings and webinars to engage audiences in the Hudson Valley.

Pattern for Progress hopes that the newly available data and analysis will support equitable decisionmaking by a wide range of local actors. Pattern has identified news outlets, advocacy organizations, local legislatures, land banks, and others who could use the findings to advocate for policies that preserve affordable housing and increase homeownership opportunities. Such policies could prioritize access to housing and ownership for current residents or increase opportunities for first-time homebuyers, especially in high-tourism areas. Although corporate homeownership has been the subject of much discussion in New York, no data are readily available to inform public discussions and policies. This project will create the first dataset of its kind to analyze the influence of corporate homeownership in the Hudson Valley, one of the most stressed housing markets in the United States.