Thanks to rising home prices a decade after the foreclosure crisis, it has become harder for most New York families to buy a home, the New York Post reported.

According to the non-profit Center for NYC Neighborhoods (CNYCN) study, “Aftermath: Affordable Homeownership in New York City,” New Yorkers are being shut out from buying a home because of high prices, while those who are current homeowners are struggling to keep up with housing costs, taxes and necessary repairs. The report also mentioned that while home prices have grown, incomes for New Yonkers have not kept pace.

Meanwhile, a group that is benefiting in this current market are real estate investors who, according to the report, “are increasingly outbidding working New Yorkers who are seeking to own.”

The CNYCN cited its findings and recommended solutions in the study. For instance, there is a rising population of senior homeowners 65 and older, most of whom lived on fixed incomes and need services, who will need support as they grow older. This includes assistance for reverse mortgage buyers and for those who need affordable financing for home repairs and retrofits. Additionally, as there are more senior homeowners, there is a 34 percent decline in homeowners 35 and younger -- largely due to rising home prices and stagnant wages.

Home purchases from real estate investors have doubled since the Great Recession recovery, preventing the typical New Yorker from owning, said the Center. Its recommendations included instituting a flip tax and cease and desist zones to help communities who experience “an influx of real estate investment.”

The study added that investors have been more active in the 1-to-4 family and condo markets compared to co-ops because of the tough co-op board approval process: “In 2017, more than 20 percent of 1-to-4 family homes ales were to investors, compared with 18 percent for condos and 2 percent for co-ops.”

The report said that in general, most New Yorkers are unable to afford a home. Of the all homes sold in 2017, only about 15 percent of New York families considered statistically 'typical' were able to purchase one. Suggestions for remedying that situation include increasing down payment assistance for homebuyers; promoting community land trusts, which provide below market-rate homeownership opportunities; and improving access to better jobs.

The findings also made note of a racial wealth gap in connection to homeownership, saying that “black and Hispanic families have accumulated significantly fewer assets than their white and Asian counterparts,” 10 years after the Great Recession. For example, there has been a decrease in the number of black homeownership in Brooklyn and Queens as a result of barriers to buy a home for renters, along with high foreclosure rates and lack of home repair or refinance lending.

While there have been a decline in foreclosure filings since the Great Recession, foreclosure auctions have gone up, to 3,306 in the year 2017, the report said.

“In spite of these threats, low- and middle-income homeownership must be preserved in a city confronting an affordable housing crisis where the racial wealth gap and income inequality have increased significantly over the past decade,” according to the study's executive summary.

Sarah Gerecke, a HUD official who spoke a recent affordable housing summit related to the topic, said, as quoted in the New York Post: “In my experience, no one … who experienced the crisis is the same today, and no one will be.”

David Chiu is an associate editor at The Cooperator.