This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate

ALBANY – Around Central Avenue, scarlet letters stick to the dirty windows of some run-down properties broadcasting a message: Vacant.

About 18 percent of housing units in the Central Avenue neighborhood were vacant last year, according to data from the 2020 U.S. Census. 

Just two miles away, competition is hot in Buckingham Lake, where just 5 percent of housing was vacant in 2020. 

Recent census data shows how over the last decade disrepair and disinvestment exacerbated vacancy rates in some neighborhoods, while other areas boomed with rehabilitation.

In at least one neighborhood, the departure of college students from their city housing during the earliest days of the pandemic may have driven up the neighborhood's vacancy rate artificially, along with new construction in progress.

Census tract number 4.04 surrounding the University at Albany’s uptown campus was recorded having the city’s highest vacancy rate in 2020  – about 72 percent  – despite adding new housing units over the past 10 years. Data from the 2020 census showed 123 of the 171 housing units in that tract were uninhabited on April 1, 2020.

The area is unique in that it encapsulates a majority of the university’s student body living on campus and has few residential properties, according to Jordan Carleo-Evangelist, the university’s interim director of communications. The university said its student population had nothing to do with the low vacancy rate and called it an "anomaly."

Bradley Glass, the city's director of planning and development, suspects the high vacancy rate is linked to rising development in the area, specifically a new 252-unit housing complex erected on Sandidge Way. Glass said it seems the U.S. Census Bureau counted the units under construction at the time and classified them as vacant.

Samuel Wells, Albany's neighborhood stabilization coordinator, said under the Census Bureau’s definition for vacant housing units, newer construction with exterior windows and doors installed can fall into the category. The Sandidge Way construction was near that stage of development when the bureau began its count, Wells recalled. 

Mark Castiglione, executive director of the Capital District Regional Planning Commission, agreed. There aren’t many residences in the tract to begin with, he said. The high vacancy rate may also reflect developers’ work to empty plots for incoming apartment buildings.

And while tract 4.04’s high rate chronicled new construction around a college-oriented territory, another census tract, 6, is seeing more buildings go down than are being re-built.

The tract running along Central Avenue between the Washington and Tivoli Parks experienced Albany’s largest reduction in overall housing and occupied units between 2010 and 2020. Census Bureau figures detailed a loss of 114 housing units and a 109-unit decrease in occupied realty.

Castiglione indicated the loss of housing there is in part due to a maintenance deficit causing disinvestment. 

Anyone driving through the neighborhood can’t ignore the spate of dilapidated properties, many marked with scarlet letters or a red X. The crimson notches denote the buildings are unsafe to enter and strong candidates for demolition. Wells said that stretch hasn’t seen much construction over the years, although many deteriorated buildings were taken down.  

“Oftentimes, absentee landlords contribute to the lack of investment and people that essentially abandoned their properties and the complex process that is in place for public agencies to reclaim those properties before they're too far gone,” Castiglione said.  Defunct investment and what he called “white flight” out of the inner cities has produced a “concentration of poverty” affecting investors’ draw to the neighborhood.

But Wells believes the disinvestment in the community isn’t because there’s a lack of interest. Investors are looking at the area and there’s been some rehab work with home leasing made possible by low-income and historic housing tax credits. 

Yet, developers are finding it tough to make the numbers work to their benefit when such subsidies aren’t amounting to their need for new constructions. When the calculations don’t add up in their favor, they opt out for better opportunities in other neighborhoods, he explained.

One emerging section of the city developers might find themselves drawn to is the Mansion quarter, statistically known as tract 25. The Mansion neighborhood championed the greatest decline in vacant units by percentage, eliminating roughly 124 vacant units while also decreasing its housing stock by 21 units.

Mansion’s contradictory success to eradicate a large number of vacancies though lost housing proved to be a “statistical conundrum” for Wells. The vicinity is comprised of some of Albany’s oldest homes and a healthy supply of public housing. Similar to tract 6, the area has seen its fair share of demolition reinforcing the drop in its overall stock, according to Wells. 

The difference between tract 25 and 6 is that some of the buildingsin the Mansion area that had dates with a bulldozer were rehabbed after. Castiglione noted that a variety of revitalization and redevelopment efforts targeted the neighborhood to create more housing over time.

Samantha Curry, co-principal of New Scotland Development Companies and broker of record for New Scotland Realty, has noticed “a lot” of her clients picking up properties around the Mansion border and the activity bleeding out toward South Pearl Street because it’s a chunk of the city “primed for rehab.” 

Many of the properties there are historic structures in mint condition that were left alone or went into foreclosure, Curry noted.

“When they've been sitting there vacant… it stinks, but when someone comes to rehab them, they have a better ability to kind of preserve those things that have been untouched,” she said.

Census tract 11 encompassing Ten Broeck Triangle and parts of downtown Albany was deemed a “hot neighborhood” by Curry and Wells. 

This area added 686 new housing units over the last decade, census data shows, the largest increase of any census tract in Albany. Most of those units were occupied in 2020.

The downtown saw plenty of residential restoration and growth during the last decade that oozed into the Ten Broeck Triangle corridor. Vacant properties with historic charm are being refurbished in a neighborhood with certain perks including walkability and nearby amenities. 

“There's a reason why these buildings are still standing 100 years later. They're not going anywhere, as long as you take care of them well, and they're becoming a luxury asset,” Curry said.  “We're seeing a lot of investors want to pick that up and hold on to it."

Richard LaJoy, Albany’s director of building and regulatory compliance, thinks the home leasing revitalization of over 70 properties around Ten Broeck Triangle was partially why the tract boomed over the last decade. Castiglione suggested that hefty investments from Habitat for Humanity and popular developers downtown coupled with rehab efforts in the area also created quality housing in the tract.

While some of the city's spheres are facing disinvestment and repair, another tract, home to Buckingham Lake, remained stable over the years with high occupancy.

The Buckingham Lake neighborhood was documented as having the lowest vacancy rate, 5.12 percent, in all the city. 

The area is characterized by rows of homes with trimmed lawns neatly tucked between trees within reach of a narrow, oblong lake. 

Buckingham was always a strong neighborhood without many vacancies, Wells said. Curry described it as a “quiet, family-friendly” area.

“You kind of get the best of both worlds in that neighborhood… it's kind of like a city within a suburb.”

An earlier version of this story referred to the Mansion neighborhood as Mansion Lake.

Shayla Colon is a Native New Yorker who previously worked for Hearst CT Media. She now covers business news for the Times Union in Albany, N.Y. When she's not reporting, find her working out or tucked away in a corner with a book, preferably Hemingway or Fitzgerald.

Emilie Munson is a data reporter for the Times Union. She previously covered federal politics in Washington, D.C., for the Times Union and Hearst Connecticut Media. Emilie also has worked as a state capitol reporter for Hearst Connecticut Media and as an education reporter for the Greenwich Time.