The People Have Spoken: Rent Is Too Damn High

Flickr user Googla

The election may be a half-remembered fever dream at this point, but that doesn't make Jimmy McMillan any less hilarious. So the Daily News put together this article, proving that if you give New Yorkers a venue to bitch about their rent, they will take a mile. And though we learned that rent is too high everywhere back in April, that doesn't mean it's any less true now! One person paying $900 a month for a one-bedroom in Flatbush said, "One bedroom used to cost $300; now it's $900. The landlords don't make any repairs. They ask for Manhattan prices and give you a ghetto treatment."

Prices range from an average of $2,000 a month in Greenwich Village to an average of $600 a month in Hunts Point, but New York still has just about the highest cost of living in the country. But as we've heard time and again, it's all about location location location. "The psychology for a lot of people is to be in Manhattan or hipper parts of Brooklyn. People will live out in Queens, but they've got different priorities. It's been this way for a long time," says Alicia Schwartz, director of www.HowToRentInNYC.com. And don't forget, the South Bronx (ugh, "SoBro") will totally happen!

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

By Jaya Saxena in News on November 21, 2010 1:22 PM

Comments [rss]

Anna

Normally I wouldn’t comment on posts but I felt that I had to as your writing style is actually good. You have broken down a tough area so that it easy to understand.

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Serviced Offices Mayfair

Dude69

Instead of forever bitching about the rent is too damn high, sell your Escalade and bling bling, save some money for a down payment, and lock in a low 30 yr fixed on a house and worry about the rent no more.

Spirit of 76

Yeah, then all you'd have to worry about is paying the mortgage, water, gas, electric, maintenance of not only the house but the sidewalk, property tax, homeowner's insurance, then mowing the lawn, raking the leaves, trimming the hedges, painting the house, fixing the roof, cleaning the gutters, etc. Assuming you can even get a loan from today's ultra-skittish banks and you can find an affordable house somewhere within the five boroughs (outside of Harlem, East New York, Bed-Stuy or the like).

If property ownership was a cure-all, Manhattan wouldn't be full of multimillion and multibillion dollar companies in leased office spaces.

Stevennnn

Those companies are getting huge,huge tax breaks otherwise they would never do business in New York.

Renting is short term. Buying is long term. If your planning to live in NYC for 5-10+ years then buying is better. Renting is just throwing money down the drain without anything showing for it.

Spirit of 76

That's the kind of simplistic analysis they teach in grade school. Real estate analysts would never make the blanket statement that buying is always better than renting. It's much more complicated than that. In fact, if you Google it, you'll find lots of online calculators designed specifically to help you figure out which is better in your case. Hardly the black and white decision you make it out to be.