It’s official: New York City rents are rising way faster than wages
We obviously don’t need some groundbreaking study to know that living in New York has gotten way too expensive, but sometimes it’s nice to have some hard, cold data to back the claim up.
According to a report by StreetEasy that analyzed extensive data from Zillow, rent increases in about half of major metro areas throughout the country have grown at a faster pace than wages, but New York takes the cake when it comes to disparities between the average person’s salary and how much their apartment is costing them on a monthly basis.
RECOMMENDED: This popular affordable grocery store just opened a location in Two Bridges
Among its many shocking but also not that shocking findings, the report found that NYC rents grew far faster than local wages—boasting the largest gap in the country as a whole. While wages here grew just 1.2% between 2022 and 2023, rent prices have increased seven times faster.
The report attributes some of these disparities to surging demand for renting in New York with low vacancy rates, a situation that allows landlords to jack up prices and finding willing tenants.
That will hopefully soon change: last month, the local government approved legislation to combat dramatic rent increases and will allow tenants to challenge any escalation that surpasses 8.5% year to year, per Gothamist. Still, enforcement may be tricky.
Back to the report: according to the outlet, upfront costs when looking for a home in New York reach an average of $10,500 because of extremely high broker fees, deposits and other factors.
The news wasn’t all bad, though—if you don’t live here. In some cities, wages have actually increased faster than rent prices, including San Jose, Houston, Salt Lake City, Austin and Raleigh.
Before you pack it up to try and make a life for yourself in North Carolina, though, it seems like the market is finally, albeit slowly, starting to moderate in some parts of the city. Shockingly, median asking rents in Manhattan for February 2024 dropped 4.6% compared to February 2023, according to StreetEasy. Even more shockingly, though, median prices in Queens have skyrocketed by 13.5% during the same time period, with competition being particularly rough in neighborhoods like Long Island City, Astoria and Sunnyside, according to the data.
In conclusion, you’re not wrong: you’re not getting paid enough.