Quantcast

The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
Read the press release here.

MAP: Where Can the Average New Yorker Afford a Studio Apartment?

By Nigel Chiwaya | April 16, 2015 7:38am

INWOOD — Believe it or not, there are still a few reasonably priced neighborhoods in New York City. And some are even in Manhattan.

With news that New Yorkers need to earn $107,000 just to afford renting the average Manhattan studio, DNAinfo set out in search of neighborhoods where the average Joe or Jane can snag a pad without breaking the bank.

STORY CONTINUES BELOW MAP

DNAinfo crunched data from StreetEasy on the median asking price for studio apartments in 2014 and compared it with the city's median salary of $52,259 in order to find places where New Yorkers would be able to rent a place without spending more than 30 percent of their income.

The De Blasio administration considers 30 percent to be the threshold at which a renter becomes burdened.

The result shows areas in Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens that are affordable. Leading the way are the Highbridge and Concourse neighborhoods of the Bronx in zip code 10452. Studios in the area had a median asking price of $987, meaning a New Yorker earning the median salary would spend just 22.66 percent of it on rent.

Renters should also look to Corona, Flushing, and Jamaica in Queens, and Bay Ridge, Gravesend and Prospect Lefferts Gardens in Brooklyn.

Deals can even be found in Manhattan.

Renters would spent just 29.85 percent of the NYC median income in Inwood, while Central Harlem's rents are just 29.74 percent of the median income in the zip code of 10030.

Still, with skyrocketing costs, the rest of Manhattan is out of reach — the TriBeCa zip code of 10037 costs 75 percent the median salary. Other high-priced areas include Williamsburg, Long Island City, Red Hook and Greenpoint.

While the news of affordable neighborhoods is positive, StreetEasy Data Scientist Alan Lightfeldt says locals should continue to expect to be squeezed by rent prices.

"Increasing rent is just one half of New York's affordability problem, the other half being lagging incomes," Lightfeldt said.

"Until New Yorkers' incomes start to see growth, expect rents to take up a growing share of your income.”

NOTE: The data provided to DNAinfo only includes zip codes where 10 or more apartments were listed on StreetEasy during 2014. Zip codes with fewer than 10 listings, for example all of Staten Island, were excluded and thus are not on the map.