Umpteenth Confirmation That NYC Housing is Expensive

A follow-up to the Census Bureau's data that most New Yorkers rent: The NY Times crunched the Census data and found that, yes, a "large percentages of residents see more of their income go to their mortgages and rents."

The Times has a chart that shows that 31% of Brooklyn homeowners spend more than half their incomes on mortgages while almost 33% of Bronx renters spend more than half their incomes on rent. There's also the example of 32-year-old single mother Zulma Solorzano whose "life has become a series of small sacrifices," since her rent is $790/month while she's paid $645 every two weeks as a part-time teacher.

More and more foreclosures have been seen in Brooklyn, while the Bronx has become where renters priced out of Brooklyn, Queens and Upper Manhattan flee. The Times finds the median rent in the Bronx to be $826; the city's median rent is now $945/month, up $36 dollars from 2001 (median rent in Manhattan is $1,081).

NY1 conducted a poll where 80% of respondents who have lived in the city for 15 year or more say that their rent is higher than ever. Plus, most people "of every economic, racial and geographic group said they're giving up more of their paycheck to rent or mortgage."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Chung in News on September 13, 2007 11:35 AM

Comments [rss]

fhdogs

"On the right side, the Queens bar is wrong... I only hope the person that did that graph earns less than I do, but I doubt it..."

I'm glad someone else saw that. Maybe Queens was 38% but someone didn't want that number to be higher than Brooklyn.

guest

I smell a "blame George W. Bush" rant in the near future.

mocanlagunas

On the right side, the Queens bar is wrong... I only hope the person that did that graph earns less than I do, but I doubt it...

JMH

Sorry, you're right Mike D. I guess I should've RTFA.

guest

How do they calculate the median rent for Manhattan? Do they add in the cost all of the subsidized housing or something? How did they come up with that number? Shares don't count as rent. That is only a portion of the actual rent. I hate it when somebody tells you their monthly rent amount and that amount is a share of the monthly rent.

The residents of Richmond and Kings counties have the lowest average income of any of the boroughs. That needs to be taken into consideration. While us Manhattan residents are all rich and only pay $1100/mo rent.

Mike D

JMH: The NY1 article says New Yorkers say they're spending a higher percentage of their paychecks than ever before on rent. It's not just that people are paying more money, it's that cost of housing has increased faster than people's incomes.

JMH

The NYT should take all the money they spend to put together articles like this and give it to me. Then at least one person could afford their rent.

Rent is higher than ever? You mean, like, landlords increase it year to year rather than decrease it? Gee, that's profound.

If they wanted to use numbers that were actually meaningful, they'd cite median *market* rent. Yeah, sure, you can find a fucking apartment in Manhattan for $1,081. Whatever.