Housing Needs Assessment and Market Study

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Downtown Syracuse
Housing Needs Assessment and Market Study

This is a project of the Downtown Committee of Syracuse by CommunityScale. The purpose of this project is to create a detailed analysis of Downtown Syracuse’s housing market to provide data-driven insights into opportunities to develop and grow overall housing options for the next 5-10 years. This includes understanding housing availability, current market, and long-term trends. This will focus on demographic changes and economic factors that impact housing development.

Understanding Downtown Syracuse's housing market within regional growth and demographic shifts

Downtown has had explosive growth since 2015, including adding higher income households.

Single-person households and seniors living alone are strong growth areas and could be targeted with new units that meet their needs and preferences.

All of Onondaga County is a 20-30 minute drive from Downtown, making it the de facto market area for analysis and the primary draw area from which to attract new residents to downtown housing. The County region added 9,000 households since 2020. As the County region continues to grow for the next 5 years, a portion of that growth could be attracted to live downtown if the right units, amenities, lifestyle are available.

Since 2019, 50% of residents who moved to Downtown Syracuse came from outside of Onondaga County, so the analysis should also consider opportunities to attract more residents and investment from beyond Onondaga County.

Total households in Downtown Syracuse compared with other downtowns and neighborhoods.

Multifamily rental conditions

Downtown has 3,024 multifamily units, added 699 new units in the last 5 years, and an additional 589 units are in the development pipeline. The average asking rent per square foot across all Downtown units is $1.70. Projects built in the last two years are achieving $2.18-$4.35 per square foot, especially among smaller units.

  • Average Studio Asking Rent $1,299
  • Average 1 Bedroom Asking Rent/Unit $1,382
  • Average 2 Bedroom Asking Rent/Unit $1,889
  • Average 3 Bedroom Asking Rent/Unit $3,179 (skewed by low sample size)

Depending on the unit size and building amenities, downtown units are renting for 15-75% more than average units in the broader City of Syracuse submarket and Metro Syracuse market. The occupancy rate is 95%, which is higher than the historic average of 93%. This tight rental market suggests there is pent-up demand for more apartments.

Asking rents per square foot in Downtown Syracuse multifamily housing as of 2025.

When do people come to Downtown?

Residential users are constant but a small fraction of the overall activity in Downtown. Friday is the busiest day.
Midday is the busiest time of day, with the most visitors coming at 7PM.
Placer.ai analyzes aggregated, statistical foot traffic data from mobile device location data, and while it doesn't explicitly define what constitutes a "visit," it's reasonable to assume that a visit is generally considered to be a period of time spent within a defined area, or point of interest (POI), and driving through a POI likely wouldn't be counted as a visit.

How does Downtown Syracuse compare to peer communities?

Comparable communities help market studies by providing benchmarks on key metrics such as growth, demographics, and income across areas with similar socioeconomic or geographic characteristics. In this case, each community was chosen for its relevance in size, regional context, and overall demographic profiles, allowing for a meaningful comparison of trends and conditions.

Downtown Syracuse is compared to other neighborhoods within Syracuse including Westcott/ University Hill, Tipperary Hill, and Franklin Square / Lakefront, as well as downtown neighborhoods in other upstate New York cities, Rochester and Buffalo.

CommunityScale

The Downtown Committee of Syracuse is a private, not-for-profit, professional Downtown management organization that represents all property owners and tenants within the central business district.

CommunityScale

CommunityScale is a pioneering urban planning and spatial data analysis company serving clients across the United States. Follow us on LinkedIn and X.