Study: Brooklynites Bearing Heavy Rent Burden
In what is unlikely to generate more than a “No Duh!” response from most New Yorkers, a study conducted by Anthony Weiner’s office has found that, surprise, surprise, many Brooklynites spend a high proportion of their paychecks on rent. Overall, 30% of Brooklynites are spending more than half of their income on rent. (The Daily…
In what is unlikely to generate more than a “No Duh!” response from most New Yorkers, a study conducted by Anthony Weiner’s office has found that, surprise, surprise, many Brooklynites spend a high proportion of their paychecks on rent. Overall, 30% of Brooklynites are spending more than half of their income on rent. (The Daily News article article fails to mention whether “income” refers to pre-tax income or take-home pay. It also does not make clear whether it’s 30% of all Brooklynites or 30% of all Brooklynites who rent.) One guy in East New York makes $1,300 a month and coughs up $940 in rent! Let’s do a study of Brownstoner readers who rent:
Photo by Bryan Collins
get real. its not as simple as just moving to jackson heights, dont you think theres already overcrowding in sunnyside, corona etc. theres already tons of illegal conversions where 20 or more people live in shanty like conditions inside one or two family homes, or 1-2 bedroom apt rentals are still $2-3K a month becuase the expectation is that 4-8 people will be using it as a crash pad, there is also the errosion of handshake deals and look you in the eye landlords, pre gentrification LIC and greenpoint was where you could walk around and just look at a sign in the window, then landlord would hand you keys and say bring the $ later, sorry i didnt make alot of money and chased the almighty dollar while living in my $600 a month one bedroom, now im priced out of nyc and will be leaving, nyc sucks for normal people who are not consumed by greed, all the people ive met in recent years are transpplants who are alwyas taking a chance becuase they always have somewhere to go if it fails, too many people have mommy and daddy subsidizing their nyc existence, but its at the expense of normal everyday new yorkers, post all the hate you want all the rage, but really who will slave away for $8 an hour with a 90 min or longer commute from the farthest reaches of nyc just to clean up after you or pour your lazy ass some latte with soy chapafrappa whatever you call it this week,
if you can’t afford the neighborhood you grew up in, that sucks. but you know what…there are 50 other great neighborhoods you can move into in Brooklyn and Queens which ARE affordable.
i can’t afford to live in chevy chase, maryland where i grew up either, but i’m not crying about it.
lots of people grew up in neighborhoods which they can no longer afford. it is not a birth right to die in the same hood you were born into.
that’s absurd. move to flatbush, to jackson heights, to sunnyside, to bensonhurst, to brighton beach, to astoria, to midwood….there are tons of neighborhoods around where you can still make it on a meager salary. come on now.
the folks saying ‘move’ aren’t considering something: connections. if you grew up in brooklyn and all your family is here, it is harder to just up and move away than if you moved here recently. and the idea that everyone should just move because rents are crazy here is kind of absurd. people who have lived in nyc for their whole lives, whose families have been here for generations, are being priced out of the city, whether they rent or, god forbid, wanted to buy something. “get a roommate” and “move” might be personal solutions, but on a grand scale something is -horribly- wrong with the housing market in nyc. if you can’t support yourself on minimum wage working full time, there is something wrong with the economics of a place. and that is the situation here.
and yes, buffalo is less expensive, but it’s also less comfortable for a lot of folks, for instance, queer folks.
i hear ALL THE TIME from my friends that they wish they owned and didn’t rent.
i have no idea why the people on this blog have such a hard time admitting that fact. there’s nothing wrong with saying it. i wished i owned and was a bit envious of people before i owned as well.
now that i do, i appreciate it, don’t take it for granted at all, and think i’m a good role model for my friends who aspire to owning a piece of nyc. they now see that it is possible to live on a modest salary and save up money to buy a place at a relatively young age, without parental help and some good luck.
i also happen to pay less to own my place than many people i know renting similar spaces. they are shocked at that fact. once you get the downpayment saved, it’s shocking how, after tax deductions, you can own a pretty nice place (a small one) on a budget of similar to what you paid in rent. not so on a brownstone (to be expected…it’s the equivalent of owning a huge suburban mansion in terms of price) but for most modest apartments.
owning a home allows one the opportunity to take control of one’s finances in a way that renting does not. i know that for the next 30 years, i will pay the same amount and not be subject to increasing rental costs and each year wonder if i have to leave my place. that feeling is unsettling, and this allows one the opportunity to make sense of at least one thing in this crazy city we call home.
it’s the best thing i ever did.
OWning a house does not automatically make you house poor, oh bitter one.
As for the loser who thinks I have to be hassled by paying my mortgage, it is automatically deducted from my account. Meter readings? Done with a handheld device that does not require me to be there. Paying that bill? on-line. You, renting loser, have a LOT to learn about how things work in the world. Perhaps, if you were more efficient and organized, you could be a homeowner by now.
And why do you expect to move right into a house. Try a condo or co-op first. If you are thinking you move from a rental to a brownstone then your upbringing in Iowa left you unprepared for life in teh big city.
Bitterrenter.com, millions of hits a day in NYC alone.
i think you’re still renting, 5:28, 5:29 and 5:29 because you can’t even figure out how to post only once on a blog.
fulton & classon is not so scary anymore for hipsters & yuppies, i mean whats scarier is why with my own eyes i saw mommies whipping out checkbooks for their darling pratt brat’s $2200 luxury studio lofts on troutman off knickerbocker, thats scary. by the way, bitterrenter.com is my domain, but i think soon there will be more underwater homeowner type sites.
fulton & classon is not so scary anymore for hipsters & yuppies, i mean whats scarier is why with my own eyes i saw mommies whipping out checkbooks for their darling pratt brat’s $2200 luxury studio lofts on troutman off knickerbocker, thats scary. by the way, bitterrenter.com is my domain, but i think soon there will be more underwater homeowner type sites.
fulton & classon is not so scary anymore for hipsters & yuppies, i mean whats scarier is why with my own eyes i saw mommies whipping out checkbooks for their darling pratt brat’s $2200 luxury studio lofts on troutman off knickerbocker, thats scary. by the way, bitterrenter.com is my domain, but i think soon there will be more underwater homeowner type sites.