Where are rents of one-bedroom apartments growing fastest?
East Harlem is leading the way in Manhattan, with the median rent for one-bedrooms rising 5.5 percent from the last quarter of 2015 to $2,300 a month, according to an analysis from apartment listings platform Zumper.
That makes the area pricier than neighboring Central Harlem ($2,100 a month), West Harlem ($2,175 a month) and Washington Heights ($1,750 a month).
To afford a rent of $2,300, many landlords would require you to earn 40 times that salary, which is $92,000 a year.
The median income of a family in East Harlem is estimated at about $23,000 a year.
East Harlem is currently in the midst of a controversial rezoning which is aimed at transforming the neighborhood with buildings as tall as 35 stories in some areas. It would also develop on available land in public housing complexes.
Many local groups, like El Barrio Unite, are protesting the plan that would rezone the area between East 104th and 132nd streets from Park to Second avenues, and between East 126th and 132nd streets between Madison and Fifth.
They worry that bringing high-density development will only increase the pressure on existing low-income tenants.
Since the de Blasio administration last year named East Harlem as one of several neighborhoods targeted to be rezoned that would fall under its mandatory inclusionary housing program, many worried that speculation would follow.
City officials have been saying that gentrification is already taking place in East Harlem and elsewhere, so leaving things as they are isn’t an option.
In Brooklyn, the fastest growing rents for one-bedroom units were in Bushwick and Ocean Hill, both up more than 6 percent since last quarter.
The $2,260 a month rent in Bushwick was slightly higher than neighboring Bedford-Stuyvesant’s $2,250, but still lower than Williamsburg’s $3,000 a month.
The median rent for a one-bedroom in Ocean Hill — an area that’s perhaps been getting more attention from those priced out of its neighbor Bed-Stuy — was $1,710 a month, Zumper found.