Using parcel-level property tax data, we tracked changes in ownership from 2012 to 2022 to understand where corporate landlords are active, how they are acquiring properties, and what this might mean for housing access and stability.
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NJSPL: Declining STEM Expertise in U.S. State Legislatures
Unfortunately, this latest update in data reflects a decline in the overall representation of scientific, engineering, and healthcare professionals in U.S. state legislatures. Out of the 7,523 total lawmakers currently serving, 231 were identified as having science-based backgrounds, representing 3.07% of total lawmakers. This marks a full percentage point drop from the 4.09% recorded in September 2024, and represents a 25% proportional decline in less than a year.
NJSPL: Some College, No Credential Population in NJ
During the 2023-2024 academic year, over 757,000 working-age New Jerseyans were part of the “Some College, No Credential” population, a 1.9% increase from the previous year.
Loh and Noland Explore Public Charging Station Disparities
ontrary to the general notion of unequal access to public charging stations across different income groups, we found that the disparity was minimal. Assuming a full fleet of EVs and the current level of charging infrastructure, the success rate for all income groups is low but similar using 2035 trip-level data.
NJSPL Report: Analyzing the Use and Equity of ARPA Funds
The study’s findings have two key implications for future federal aid programs. First, many local governments allocated ARPA funds in alignment with the policy’s primary goals—responding to the economic and health crises. This suggests that maintaining flexibility in future federal aid programs would enable local governments to tailor spending to their unique needs. Second, ARPA funds were allocated to more distressed local governments, demonstrating a potential model for future federal aid programs to ensure resources reach areas with the greatest need.
Dr. Grafova Presented Posters from the VSR Research
“It was an honor to represent our amazing research team — Pamela de Cordova, Jennifer Polakowski, and Jessica Anderson. Huge thanks to the New Jersey State Policy Lab for funding this research and making this work possible.”
NJSPL: Georeferencing Historical Maps for Geospatial Analysis
As part of ongoing research to create a dataset of historical water bodies in New Jersey, researchers have begun locating and charting these historical water bodies with the use of atlases from the David Rumsey Map Collection. The digitized maps in these atlases were then georeferenced, a process of determining the precise location of these maps on the Earth’s surface. The ultimate goal is to trace water bodies in order to evaluate flood vulnerability across the state.
NJSPL: Examining Property Transitions in New Jersey
Approximately 19% of Trenton’s one- to four-unit housing properties transitioned to corporate ownership between 2012 and 2022, totaling just over 4,000 properties in the Garden State capital. Researchers have been in the process of examining corporate home ownership in New Jersey, in particular how much exists today and which communities have the highest or fastest-growing rates of corporate and other investor ownership in the past decade.
Tariff Uncertainty and its Impact on Economic Forecasting
R/ECON’s next economic forecast is slated for release in mid-summer, followed by another forecast in the fall. As we track the latest state data and national outlook, we have been closely following the news on tariffs, the Fed’s potential actions, and associated fluctuations in the financial markets.
NJSPL: Chatbot for NJ SNAP Services
Built on OpenAI’s API and leveraging the Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) model, the chatbot bridges the gap between users and SNAP resources by delivering answers in English and Spanish (among other languages).