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Surprise: Your Student Loans Make It Hard For You To Rent An Apartment
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 6, 2014
Modified Jun 6, 2014
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Dmitrijs Dmitrijevs/Shutterstock
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 6, 2014
Modified Jun 6, 2014
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This week's NY Times millennial explainer comes courtesy of the student loan crisis, which, in addition to slowly eating away at the economy, is making it really difficult for recent graduates to be able to afford living in New York City. Can anyone afford to live here?
The Grey Lady profiled a handful of recent grads burdened by student debt—which, if you were wondering, is now at a collective $1 trillion in the United States—and found that making rent while fielding $1000-plus monthly loan payments isn't exactly a walk in the park. One young woman who couldn't afford a place of her own found herself bouncing from apartment to apartment, sharing rooms and crashing on couches for two months.
Another, saddled with a two-year-old child and a $30,000 loan for a program she dropped out of, has been living in a motel on Long Island for two months. She defaulted on her loan payment, which smashed her credit and has made apartment hunting all the more difficult. “You have to make 40 times the rent, and I don’t," she told the Times. "They don’t want me." One of the interviewees is planning to leave the city entirely, even though he's gotten a full ride to an NYU graduate program that allots him $1,100 rent in Stuyvesant Town. "The fact that people think it’s a good deal makes me think people here are brainwashed," he said.
The argument, been made time and time again. Not everyone can afford New York, and cities like Austin and Minneapolis have proven far more livable for young professionals burdened with student debt. But just because it's true doesn't make it right, and obviously it doesn't bode well for New York's future if more and more young people are getting pushed out.
More frustratingly, new research has shown that those with a college degree tend to net nearly twice as much money in their lifetimes as those without, so you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. The Canadian Yukon territory's starting to sound better and better.
Tagged
debt crisis
student debt
student loans
Rebecca Fishbein
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