NYC Housing Connect Lotteries: Units, Incomes and Bedrooms
Housing Connect advertised 64,622 affordable units in 1,754 lotteries since mid-2020. See units by year, income band, bedroom size and borough from HPD data.
Updated October 12, 2026 · Data: NYC Open Data / HPD
From July 2020 through early October 2026, the city advertised 64,622 affordable units in 1,754 Housing Connect lotteries. The yearly total grew from 9,611 units in 2021 to 13,705 in 2025. Most units are studios and one-bedrooms, and the single largest income band is middle income (121–165% of area median income), not the lowest bands.
Roofy data
Housing Connect lotteries in 2025
Lotteries that opened for applications in calendar year 2025
What this data covers
NYC Housing Connect is the city's portal to find and apply for affordable rental and homeownership units. HPD's dataset lists every lottery advertised there since July 2020. A lottery is a one-time call for applications for a set of units, or for places on a waiting list, usually in one building. The dataset leaves out "mini lotteries" (re-rentals and resales filled directly from Housing Connect users) and Mitchell-Lama waiting lists. We group lotteries by the year they opened. The median lottery had 12 units, so a few large buildings carry much of the total.
Units advertised each year
Source: NYC Open Data, Advertised Lotteries on Housing Connect By Lottery · data as of 2026-10-12
Lotteries that opened in 2025 advertised 13,705 units, up from 12,096 in 2024 and 9,611 in 2021. The number of lotteries grew less: 278 in 2021, 325 in 2024 and 306 in 2025, so the average lottery got bigger. The single largest lottery in the data, Willets Point Commons in Queens, opened in December 2025 with 747 units. Through early October 2026, 196 lotteries with 6,072 units have opened. Homeownership is a small slice: 1,680 of 64,622 units across all years.
Who the units are for: income bands
Source: NYC Open Data, Advertised Lotteries on Housing Connect By Lottery · data as of 2026-10-12
Each unit is tagged with the area median income (AMI) band of its income limit. HPD's 2026 AMI for the New York City region is $152,700 for a three-person family (100% AMI); the dollar limits for each lottery are on its Housing Connect listing. Across all lotteries, 38% of units were in the middle band (121–165% AMI) and 31% in the low band (51–80%). Only 3.2% (2,083 units) were for extremely low incomes, and 18% for very low incomes.
The lottery data shows what was advertised, not who moved in, and it covers only units filled through Housing Connect lotteries. Our affordable housing production report shows the income mix of all units the city financed.
Where the lotteries are
- Brooklyn24.4K
- Bronx14.9K
- Queens13.8K
- Manhattan10.7K
- Staten Island698
Source: NYC Open Data, Advertised Lotteries on Housing Connect By Lottery · data as of 2026-10-12
Brooklyn had 793 lotteries and 24,447 units, 38% of the total. The Bronx (14,868), Queens (13,835) and Manhattan (10,746) follow. Staten Island had 12 lotteries with 698 units. The income mix differs by borough: 50% of Queens units and 44% of Brooklyn units were middle income, compared with 29% in the Bronx, where 64% were at or below 80% AMI.
Bedroom sizes
One-bedrooms are the most common size (28,326 units, 44%), followed by two-bedrooms (28%) and studios (22%). Units with three or more bedrooms were 5.2% of the total, and four-bedroom or larger units numbered just 135. Larger households will find far fewer lotteries that fit. The table shows the split by borough.
| Borough | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4+ BR | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brooklyn | 5,188 | 10,810 | 7,215 | 1,159 | 75 | 24,447 |
| Bronx | 3,375 | 6,312 | 4,080 | 1,063 | 38 | 14,868 |
| Queens | 2,701 | 6,486 | 4,075 | 568 | 5 | 13,835 |
| Manhattan | 3,149 | 4,366 | 2,821 | 394 | 16 | 10,746 |
| Staten Island | 85 | 352 | 206 | 55 | 0 | 698 |
| Multiple boroughs | 0 | 0 | 12 | 15 | 1 | 28 |
| All boroughs | 14,498 | 28,326 | 18,409 | 3,254 | 135 | 64,622 |
Income bands by year
| Year | ≤30% | 31–50% | 51–80% | 81–120% | 121–165% | >165% | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 145 | 425 | 442 | 233 | 1,218 | 0 | 2,463 |
| 2021 | 318 | 1,910 | 2,630 | 1,160 | 3,593 | 0 | 9,611 |
| 2022 | 280 | 1,602 | 3,057 | 680 | 4,013 | 0 | 9,642 |
| 2023 | 479 | 2,477 | 3,418 | 734 | 3,925 | 0 | 11,033 |
| 2024 | 347 | 2,073 | 3,582 | 1,114 | 4,980 | 0 | 12,096 |
| 2025 | 344 | 2,278 | 4,545 | 1,148 | 5,390 | 0 | 13,705 |
| 2026 | 170 | 1,123 | 2,680 | 432 | 1,607 | 60 | 6,072 |
The middle band was the largest band in every full year from 2021 through 2025. Across those five years, 1,768 units were advertised for extremely low incomes, against 21,901 for middle incomes.
What the data can and cannot tell you
Use this before you apply
Read our Housing Connect lottery guide for how applications work, then check which income bands you fit with the Housing Connect income checker. If you are weighing other options, see Mitchell-Lama apartments and how to find a rent-stabilized apartment. Once you get an offer, look up the building on Roofy's NYC building lookup.
All 1,754 rows of vy5i-a666 downloaded 2026-10-12 and aggregated; year, borough, bedroom and AMI totals cross-checked with grouped SoQL queries saved in src/data/reports/nyc-housing-connect-lotteries.json (e.g. Brooklyn 793 lotteries / 24,447 units). AMI band definitions from the dataset column descriptions and the HPD AMI page; the 2026 100% AMI of $152,700 for a three-person family is from the HPD AMI page. Fact-check 2026-10-12: independently re-downloaded all 1,754 rows and re-ran the saved year and borough SoQL queries; every total, year, borough, bedroom, AMI band, waiting-list (93 / 8,304), median (12) and largest-lottery figure matched. Dataset scope (since July 2020, excludes mini lotteries and Mitchell-Lama, applicant dataset planned) checked against the dataset description; AMI band ranges against the column descriptions and HPD AMI page. Preference-field coverage now stated as a range (414-466 lotteries) instead of the community board count alone.
Sources
- Advertised Lotteries on Housing Connect By Lottery (vy5i-a666) · NYC Open Data / HPD (accessed October 12, 2026)
- Area Median Income · NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (accessed October 12, 2026)
- Find Affordable Housing · NYC Department of Housing Preservation and Development (accessed October 12, 2026)
- NYC Housing Connect · NYC HPD (accessed October 12, 2026)
General information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Rules change; confirm with the agency or a professional before you act.
Related
- GuideNYC Housing Connect lottery: how to apply and qualify
- ToolDo I qualify for NYC affordable housing lotteries?
- GuideMitchell-Lama apartments: how the program works
- GuideHow to find a rent-stabilized apartment in NYC
- ReportNYC Affordable Housing Production by Borough and Income Level
- ToolHow much rent can I afford?