The city’s housing vacancy rate has dropped to 1.4% — the lowest number since 1968 — according to the latest report by the NYC Department of Housing and Preservation Development.

The results of the department’s Housing and Vacancy Survey were presented to the City Council Thursday. The survey has been conducted roughly every three years since 1965 to determine the need for rent control and rent stabilization, the agency said.

Through field research taken between January and mid-June 2023, the report found the vacancy rate had nosedived from 4.54% in 2021, when the coronavirus pandemic was still in full swing.

The report also suggests that an imbalance between supply and demand is a cause of the rate drop, saying that even though the city’s net housing stock grew by a relatively high 60,000 units, it failed to keep up with the demand of 275,000 new city households.

The lack of availability is spread across all rent levels, but is most severe at the most affordable price points. The vacancy rate for apartments renting for less than $2,400 was below 1%, and for units under $1,100, the vacancy rate was 0.39%, according to the HPD.

Even in high-cost homes, availability was still limited at a 3.39% vacancy rate, according to the report. The overall number of units available for rent hovered around 33,000 citywide, which the HPD considers “exceptionally low.”

The report also found nearly all low-income New Yorkers are forced to spend a substantial portion of their income on rent. When looking at households who earned less than $25,000 without rental assistance, 86% of them spent more than 50% of their income on rent, according to the report.

The HPD recommends building more affordable homes, creating zoning reforms and increasing federal funding as solutions to increase housing availability.

“Without significant public investments in new construction and housing preservation, the city’s wealth gap and racial disparities will grow while middle- and low- income New Yorkers will increasingly struggle financially,” the HPD said.