Renting and buying more expensive, incomes not keeping pace

The cost of living in New York City continues to rise – with costs of buying a home and renting both outstripping the rate of income growth for New Yorkers.

The cost of buying a home in the city went up for the third year in a row, no matter which borough you live in, according to a new report from researchers at N.Y.U.’s Furman Center.

Though the sharpest increase was in Manhattan, every borough saw the cost of buying a home increase between 2013 and 2014. The report found that this is true for all types of housing.

COST OF BUYING INCREASES BY BOROUGH:

Manhattan 13.5% increase

Brooklyn 13.4% increase

Queens 8.4% increase

The Bronx 8.1% increase

Staten Island 3.8% increase

But forget buying a home, even renting can be a stretch for some of the 68% of New Yorkers who are renters, according to the report.

Based on city data between 2005 and 2013, the researchers found that median rent across the city has increased by nearly 12%, while the median income of people paying the rent has gone up by only 2.3% over that time.

“Over the past nine years, rent increases have far surpassed income growth,” the report says.

While rents across the city have gone up, the neighborhoods in and close to Manhattan tend to be the priciest. The top 5 priciest neighborhoods to find a new apartment were all in Manhattan. The least expensive on the list were mostly in the Bronx and Staten Island.

TEN MOST EXPENSIVE NEIGHBORHOODS TO RENT (by median asking price on the market):

Financial District, Manhattan $3,750

Midtown, Manhattan $3,655

Clinton/Chelsea, Manhattan $3,468

Greenwich Village/Soho, Manhattan $3,400

Stuyvesant Town/Turtle Bay, Manhattan $3,195

Greenpoint/Williamsburg, BK $3,100

Upper West Side, Manhattan $3,100

Lower East Side/Chinatown, Manhattan $3,000

Fort Greene/Brooklyn Heights, BK $2,995

Park Slope/Carroll Gardens, BK $2,750

TEN LEAST EXPENSIVE NEIGHBORHOODS TO RENT (by median asking price on the market):

Throgs Neck/Co-op City, Bronx $1,350

Belmont/East Tremont, Bronx $1,325

Parkchester/Soundview, Bronx $1,313

Williamsbridge/Baychester, Bronx $1,300

Rockaway/Broad Channel, Queens $1,218

Highbridge/Concourse, Bronx $1,185

Kingsbridge Heights/Bedford, Bronx $1,175

South Beach/Willowbrook, S.I. $1,175

Fordham/University Heights, Bronx $1,150

Hunts Point/Longwood, Bronx $1,150

The N.Y.U. report found that rises in rents are likely to be more drastic if you’re looking for a new apartment, rather than staying where you are.

“Because many renters live in rent-stabilized apartments, receive rent subsidies, or simply get favorable terms as a result of long-term tenancy, the median gross rent paid by all New Yorkers may not reflect the experience of those looking for an apartment on the open market,” the report says.

These increases come at a time when Mayor Bill De Blasio is still pushing his affordable housing plan, one of the main issues he has repeatedly raised during his time in office. The plan involves building 80,000 units of affordable housing and preserving 120,000 units on top of that.

This week he reiterated that priority, while talking about the city’s proposed rent regulation reforms, which aim to preserve more units across the city as affordable housing.

“This is a vital priority for New York City. Our working families and our neighborhoods are depending on stronger rent laws. Rent is the number one expense for New Yorkers,” said De Blasio in a statement.

The New York City Rent Guidelines Board will meet at the end of June to decide how much of a rent increase to allow for rent-stabilized and rent-controlled apartments. Last year, the board voted for a historically low increase for those types of housing, but did not vote for a rent freeze – which is what Mayor Bill De Blasio and other public officials had originally been pushing for.