The (Manhattan) Rent is (Seriously) Too Damn High

[xchrom]

http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/04/the_manhattan_r.php

Ah, the Manhattan real estate market. That one barrier holding you back from the Big Apple's charm while simultaneously making you go absolutely insane. This collection of brokerages and hidden fees turns this anxiety-driven urban playground into a rental nightmare, forcing inhabitants to search for their humble abode on the other side of the East River. And with good riddance.

Over this past weekend, the NYTimes reported that, according to numbers from the brokerage firm CitiHabitats, Manhattan is costing more than it ever has, passing the 2007 housing bubble threshold. To stay in an apartment on this lonely island, a person has to dish out, on average, $3,418 a month. If we do the math, that is $41,016 a year; or, in other words, run... as fast as you can.

You might be saying, "Well I live in a studio and don't pay that much." That is true, which is why the number is the average. With that being said, here is a snippet from the article to get a sense of what we're all paying:

"Rental averages are up in every category, with one-bedrooms rising the most, by 6.5 percent over the past year, to $2,747, according to the Citi Habitats report. Studios rose 3.6 percent, to $1,953; two-bedrooms climbed by 6.1 percent, to $3,865; and three-bedrooms rose 4 percent, to $5,107."

[mzteris]

1. know anyone

who wants to rent out a room for about 5 weeks in the summer?

[marmar]

2. As much as I love Manhattan, anyone who pays that much for rent is nuts.....

....... When I lived in New Rochelle, I had three friends sharing one tiny, crappy apartment in the East Village, each dishing out $800 a month. The building sucked, their apartment was visited regularly by crawling friends, and the building supervisor would have been a Stasi guard in another life.
But they got to tell everybody they lived in Manhattan, despite the fact that they had no money left over to actually enjoy living in Manhattan.

[xchrom]

6. i went to school in manhattan. your experience mirrors mine -- and this was back

during the second ice age.

i guess the thing is -- this time i think this will 'change' the city.

will it remain the wonderous place -- the mecca for youth and weirdos that it's always been?

i'm having my doubts.

[marmar]

7. Yep.

I lived there in the mid- to late-90s, and on my visits back, I can tell that the creative energy is dying quickly.

[Cleita]

11. That's usually the case in many big cities. When you move there for

access to all the cool stuff you can do, by the time you get a job and a place to live and other necessities, you don't have enough money to enjoy the cool stuff.

[cantbeserious]

3. My Mortgage, With Ridicuously High Property And School Taxes, Is Less Than All Those Rents

Last edited Sun Apr 22, 2012, 12:26 PM - Edit history (2)

eom

[MADem]

4. That rent IS too damn high!

You can rent a house for $400 in northern Maine!

[mrmpa]

5. Mortgage on 2 bedroom, 2 bath, with 17 foot long porch, 1216 square foot condo........

with taxes is less than $600 per month & my city is listed in the top 10 cities in the nation.

[FarLeftFist]

8. Location location location

Yep the rent is sky high. The crazier thing? There is even more demand for housing than supply. That's why middle class in NYC is $103,000/yr.

[aikoaiko]

9. Crazy.

Growing up in northeastern NJ in the 1980 I had a lot of friends and family live in Manhattan. Even back then it seemed crazy to rent a 2 bed/1 bath for $1500.

I can't go home to NJ either. My parent's home was purchased for 55k in 1971 and sold for 250k in 1991. It hit a high of 900k during the bubble in and is now back at 700K.

Crazy.

[Lasher]

10. Move.