The average monthly rent in New York is $2,801?

[Guest freedomfighter]

Dancing in the street.

[icandunkonu]

that number is terribly skewed by the fact that there's thousands possibly tens of thoushands apartments that have 10000+ monthly rent fees while the rest are at a normal 1-2 thousand

[Bigyen]

you güd at math son.

[icandunkonu]

i bez teh accountants

[Hocus Pocus]

It's really better to understand it by neighborhood, because even then, it's kind of complicated. A friend of mine lives in assisted housing in the West Village with his mom, and they pay $800 a month, I think for a two bedroom tiny box. But their former neighbors across the street were Giselle and Tom, who I imagine paid quite a bit more, or would have if the didn't own, or whatever (too lazy to look up whether they owned or rented that place).

My friend lived in a fairly nice place in Chinatown in 2007/2008 that was two bedrooms and $1400 a month. The average cost a place in the East Village is like 3200, and that's where Sufu lives. I think Lan pays like $500 or something crazy.

People who live in Manhattan also just make more money. It's the financial capital of the world, after all.

[icandunkonu]

my apt is in harlem right on broadway at 1000 a month for 2 br but i have a friend living 3 blocks over paying 1600 for the same

[100%]

whats your occupation doggy^

[icandunkonu]

covered that in my second post in this thread ^^^^^

[100%]

durrr

[blm14]

So, there's a lot of things which get skewed here. Most people don't realize that about 1/3rd of all apartments in the 5 boroughs are rent-stabilized, so there's that. Then there are section-8 or other low-income housing. And then there are particular areas in manhattan particularly where you can't rent anything, even a 100 sq foot studio, for less than $8,000/mo.

Another thing is that people here will pay a HUGE percentage of their after-tax income to rents. In most places, you'd be criticizing people for spending 1/3 or even half of their income on their apartments, but here it's practically the norm. Also you REALLY have to look outside manhattan. Plenty of areas in brooklyn "look" as expensive as manhattan until you realize you're paying that price for a spacious 2br with living room, dining room, and an extra bathroom.

I live in washington heights (roughly the penultimate 10% of manhattan) in a rent-stabilized 2br with amazing views:

And pay just a hair below $1200/mo. The people above me who just moved in are paying $1600 for the same view and the same space.

The main takeaway is that, as dunk mentioned above, there are certain neighborhoods (anything below 14th, sections of the upper east side, upper west side, anything on central park, etc) that skew things WAY up. Not to say it's not expensive to live here, but you can't just look at the overall average, especially if you're ONLY looking at manhattan...

[amardeep]

median rent is what you wanna look at, not mean.

[blm14]

Imagine the money you'd have if you invested below 14st 20 years ago.

+

Depends on where below 14th. Greenwich street area (basically just below 4th and west of 7th ave south) has ALWAYS been upscale and nice, if not quite as pricey as today. 20 years ago I still couldn't afford anything there. Actually in 1990 most of that area was already expensive. 1980 would be a different story. I bet I could have gotten a colossal soho loft for under 200k back in 1980...

[DaBestSpoona]

With over a million people in Manhattan, is this right? Granted, most people have roommates, but where do all these people make this much money?

Is Manhattan really full of 400,000 people that make that much money. Are there that many high paying jobs or trust funds?

Wall Street bonuses. No other place can someone make 50K a year and their bonus is 300K.

[shinobi2000]

skewed numbers definitely. Been living here all my life and while that number might be accurate it doesn't tell the complete story. YOu know what the best way to get an accurate reading of the nyc rental market is? Craigslist. Just browse through that for an hour or two in all the different hoods, trying different combos of bedroom and roommate options and you'll get a good idea.

[ssheat]

Wall Street bonuses. No other place can someone make 50K a year and their bonus is 300K.

Bonuses in finance don't usually exceed salary, especially if the person is an analyst and making 50K a year, and that only happens if they work 16+ hours a day and with good results, and the bonuses are taxed at ~50%. Its not just the people who have well-paying jobs who pay that much for a roof over their head, but also the traditional rich.

Also, I assume that 2,801 is the average per apartment, and many people share and end up paying more in total, so that's another skewing factor (As said up top).

[DaBestSpoona]

Depends on what type of firm, how large, and the compensation plan. Alot of people I know who work at hedge funds and investment banks get 2-3 times their salary i bonus when times were golden. The people who got the best compensation worked at smaller shops. Also some places structured the bonuses into something like 70% cash/30% restricted stock grants or stock options. Not everyone works 16+ days.

[ssheat]

Hedge funds and smaller firms even are down now also. A few years back, for analysts at the larger firms like merrill, goldman, lehmann, etc. analysts were making bonuses of 150 K +, but those times are gone. My brother has gotten great reviews and evaluations as an analyst at one of these firms, and has a predicted bonus of 40k pre-tax as an analyst. There's some hedge funds not giving out bonuses at all. The industry is definitely still down and struggling. But yeah, there are people still making it big as you said.