New Yorkers spend nearly 60% of income on rent —study

NEW YORK - Rent will gobble up nearly 60 percent of New Yorkers' income in 2015 with the median cost of an apartment to rise to $2,700 a month, a real-estate website said.

 

Rent prices in the city grew at nearly twice the pace of income between 2000 and 2013, estimated StreetEasy, meaning that rent has taken up an increasingly larger share of New Yorkers' incomes.

 

The website estimated that the median asking rent in New York is expected to reach $2,700 in 2015, amounting to a staggering 58.4 percent of median income in the city.

 

Brooklyn was the borough with the greatest rent burden and where a typical new renter will spend 60 percent of their income on rent in 2015.

 

That was followed by 52 percent in the Bronx, 49 percent in Manhattan, 41 percent in Queens and 30 percent on Staten Island, the website said.

 

In some neighborhoods the rent-to-income ratio is predicted to be even higher: a staggering 107 percent in Manhattan's Chinatown with a median rent of $2,485 and 86 percent in Williamsburg, the uber cool part of Brooklyn with spectacular views across the river to Manhattan.

 

There the median price of an apartment is estimated at $3,229 for 2015.

 

Renters feel the tightest squeeze in areas of relatively low income. Rent in the five most expensive markets, including Tribeca and Central Park, accounted for less than half of median income.

 

StreetEasy blamed a lack of housing supply, with limited and expensive development opportunities, for the crisis as well as stagnant incomes.

 

Competition for apartments is tough in New York and landlords often insist on proof that tenants earn around 45 times a year the monthly rent.

 

At the top end of the market, such as desirable property around Central Park, rents can rise in excess of $100,000 a month. —Agence France-Presse