Affordable Rent NYC
Photo by Edrei Rodriguez

Even wealthy New Yorkers fear they will be priced out by the city’s rising housing costs, a NY1 and Baruch College’s City Poll found.

Affordable housing is now New Yorkers’ number one concern, according to the poll.

The fear of displacement cuts across a variety of demographics. “Pretty much everybody thought they would be priced out of their neighborhood, everyone who’s under the age of 65. Even people who earn more than $100,000,” Baruch College pollster Mickey Blum told NY1.

Nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers contacted by the poll said they fear “they’re at risk of being priced out of their neighborhood in the next few years, with 65 percent calling it very or somewhat likely,” according to NY1. Of those earning $100,000 or more, more than half said it is “likely” they’ll be displaced.

Affordable Rent NYC
Photo by Mary Hautman

Rents vs. Incomes

How do rents stack up against incomes in Brooklyn? Brownstoner compared the two in five neighborhoods.

Average rents worked out to be more than 30 percent of median household incomes in every area. (A typical rule of thumb is housing costs should not exceed 30 percent of income.)

Of the five neighborhoods we compared, rents were most affordable in Bay Ridge and Park Slope.

Here’s the overview:

Brooklyn one-bedrooms cost, on average, $2,600 a month, according to MNS’ January 2016 Brooklyn Rental Market Report. Notably, the MNS report covered only 15 select borough neighborhoods, largely in the more prime swaths of Kings County.

This high average rent compares starkly to Brooklyn’s annual median household income of $45,230. (That number is from 2012, the most recent year for which stats are available. It comes from a New York State report.)

An average monthly rent of $2,600 would be $31,200 a year, or a whopping 68.98 percent of the median income. That’s a far cry from the general rule of thumb that a household shouldn’t spend more than 30 percent of its income on rent.

6th-street-park-slope-girls
Photo by Cate Corcoran

Five neighborhoods.

How do rents and incomes compare in specific neighborhoods? We compared the two in five neighborhoods: Williamsburg, Bed Stuy, Crown Heights South, Bay Ridge, and Park Slope.

Note the median incomes are those for the bigger community district, given in the American Community Survey report. The average rents for a one-bedroom apartment are from MNS’ January 2016 report.

Below, our list shows the percentage of median household income required to pay the average cost of a one-bedroom over a year:

Williamsburg — 81.7 percent
(Average annual rent: $38,604; median income: $47,229)

Bed Stuy — 66.9 percent
(Average annual rent: $24,444; median income: $36,535)

Crown Heights South — 58.38 percent
(Average annual rent: $22,728; median income: $38,934)

Bay Ridge — 37 percent
(Average annual rent: $19,812; median income: $53,500)

Park Slope — 35.7 percent
(Average annual rent: $31,392; median income: $87,896)

While Bay Ridge and Park Slope are near the 30 percent mark for salary spent on rent, even these two neighborhoods would on average require paying more than a third. Meanwhile, in Williamsburg, households with median incomes would pay more than 80 percent of their earnings on an average one-bedroom apartment.

Affordable Rent NYC
Photo by Edrei Rodriguez

[Source: NY1 | h/t DNA]

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