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Nifty Neighborhood Housing Map Highlights NYC's Rental Nightmare

Rebecca Fishbein

Published Mar 3, 2015

Modified Mar 3, 2015

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Rebecca Fishbein

Published Mar 3, 2015

Modified Mar 3, 2015

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In case you don't spend enough time obsessing over NYC's obscene rental market, real estate website StreetEasy has been kind enough to craft an interactive map that colorfully points out which neighborhoods suck whole paychecks into the ground, where Sarlacc slowly digests them over a thousand years of gentrification.

StreetEasy's map pairs forecasted median incomes in 2015 with forecasted median asking rents, discovering quite a few neighborhoods where incomes fall well below the affordability threshold for rents (30 percent). According to the website, median rent will likely hit $2,700 this year, and since rental prices have outpaced inflation, New Yorkers can expect to pay 58.4 percent of their median incomes on rent this year.

Unsurprisingly, newcomers to Brooklyn are getting hit the hardest, with an expected 60 percent of a new renter's income going toward rent. New renters in The Bronx can expect to hand off 52 percent of their incomes to their landlords, Manhattanites will spend 48.8 percent of their incomes on rent, and new renters in Queens will likely funnel 41.4 percent of their paychecks into rent. Only Staten Island, where new renters can expect to spend 30.1 percent of their incomes on rent, comes close to the affordability threshold, and there's already a craft beer bar there so it can't last for long.

The least affordable neighborhoods in the city include Manhattanville, where the rent-to-income ratio hits a startling 120.9 percent; Little Italy; Chinatown; Mott Haven in the Bronx; Red Hook in Brooklyn; North New York in the Bronx; Williamsburg; West Harlem; East Harlem, and the Lower East Side. Many residents in these neighborhoods make up low income households, but rents are still skyrocketing—the median asking rent in Manhattanville is expected to clock in at $2,246/month this year, and in Williamsburg it's up to a terrifying $3,299/month.

You can play with StreetEasy's map below, provided you're in the mood for a good cry. The good news is, it's only a matter of time until we're all underwater, so there's no need to save any money for future generations.

Tagged

real estate

rent

the rent is too damn high

Rebecca Fishbein

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