Compared to other prestigious private universities, NYU’s tuition isn’t necessarily more expensive — but its room and board absolutely is. If you break down the numbers, NYU’s tuition for the 2025-26 school year is $65,622, for all but two of its schools. In comparison, Northwestern University’s tuition is $69,375, Columbia University’s is $71,170 and the University of Southern California’s is $73,260.
NYU dorms can range from $5,310 to a whopping $13,850 per semester. This cost is even more overwhelming if you live off campus, like the majority of upperclassmen do, where the average Greenwich Village apartment goes for $6,142 a month. Finding housing in the city has become practically mandatory for attending NYU, as the school’s own housing is prohibitively expensive, but living off campus comes with its own set of issues.
“Abundance,” a book by journalists Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson, blames decadeslong policy failure for the rampant cost-of-living crisis plaguing New York City. It has also prompted local advocacy groups like Abundance New York to confront this issue. Stifling government regulations, such as strict zoning laws and overreaching environmental regulations, have significantly reduced housing supply, skyrocketing costs for everyone. Concerns for preservation of the skyline and avoiding unnecessary congestion have also guided our zoning practices for too long, and it’s time the city prioritises affordability for its many residents.
These zoning practices restrict the amount of units per building, mandated parking minimums and building height, significantly reducing the amount of housing that can be built in the city. In a sweep of legislation in 1961, New York City’s population capacity went from 55 million to 11 million as six-story apartment buildings were banned from being built across most of the city. A recent New York Times study even found that 40% of the buildings in Manhattan would be deemed illegal if they were built today. Whether the buildings are too tall, too dense with apartments or have too much commercial space, if New York City was rebuilt under current zoning laws, it would be a shell of its former self. These laws essentially make it impossible for anyone to build enough housing to satisfy the current shortage.
From 2010 to 2020, the city’s population grew by 630,000, while the number of housing units only increased by 206,000. This results in a meager rental vacancy rate of 1.4% — the lowest in recent history — which allows predatory landlords to capitalize on a low-supply housing environment by raising rents dramatically, making the city unaffordable for millions of people.
The proven solution is to build more housing. From 2017 to 2021, Minneapolis increased its housing supply by 8%, and rents only increased by 1% between 2017 and 2023. Meanwhile, Tysons, Virginia increased its supply by 23%, and had only a 4% rent increase. Austin, Texas has allowed for an apartment building boom, granting thousands of permits, and rents have tumbled for 19 months straight. As for New York City, strict zoning codes implemented in the mid-1900s make this easier said than done.
If we know that zoning is the problem, why don’t we just change the code? This is where New York City’s stifling system of bureaucracy, red-tape and regulations come in. While we can change zoning codes, the process, called the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, can take over two years to complete and can raise development costs by 11 to 16%. Not only do these ULURPs have to be approved by the community board, the borough president, the City Planning Commission, the City Council and the mayor’s office, they also have to complete a land use application and environmental review. With this system, the city has essentially made high housing costs the de-facto law of the land.
In contrast, Abundance calls on lawmakers to update housing policy by streamlining administrative processes and cutting bureaucratic red tape, allowing for the rezoning of the entire city. Through this rezoning process, we can allow buildings to have more units and to be built higher. As a result, we can finally make it legal to prioritize the construction of dense and affordable housing, lowering rents for everyone across the five boroughs.
If you want to embrace the Abundance movement, now is the perfect time to do so. New York’s election day is Nov. 4, and not only should you vote Democrat Zohran Mamdani for mayor and Democrat Mark Levine for comptroller, you should also vote “yes” to questions two, three and four to amend the New York City charter. Question two, or “Fast Track Affordable Housing to Build More Affordable Housing Across the City,” would expedite housing applications in community districts producing the least affordable housing. Question three, or “Simplify Review of Modest Housing and Infrastructure Projects,” would streamline reviews for smaller infrastructure projects. Finally, Question four, “Establish an Affordable Housing Appeals Board with Council, Borough, and Citywide Representation,” would allow rejected affordable housing projects to be appealed.
These ballot questions all concern the aforementioned ULURP process, making the system for building new affordable housing faster, cheaper and more efficient. By embracing Abundance and voting in favor of these amendments, we can take a critical step forward in the fight to make New York City, and in-turn NYU, more affordable.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Ethan Du at [email protected].
