It’s the season of college graduation, which means thousands of students across the country are about to enter the real world, and surely some of them will end up in New York. But how will those new grads afford apartments here?
The obvious answer is by getting some roommates, and a new report from StreetEasy breaks down just how much sharing your home will save you on rent.
The average recent college graduate will make $51,000 in their first full-time job, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers, and a common rule of thumb dictates that you shouldn’t spend more than 30 percent of your salary on housing.
That means, StreetEasy noted, new grads that are new to the city should try to find an apartment for $1,275 a month.
The bad news, though, is that less than 1 percent of available StreetEasy listings come in at that price, but by getting just one roommate, grads would save about $12,600 per year, or a quarter of the average starting salary. Living with two roommates would save them nearly a third of that salary, or $16,000 per year, the report found.
Rent varies across the city, though, so StreetEasy broke their findings down further to look at each borough.
New college grads can get the biggest discount on their rent by finding roommates to live with in Brooklyn, according to the real estate site.
There, the median rent for a one-bedroom or studio is $2,100, while a two-bedroom is $2,450. Living with just one roommate means rent drops to $1,225, a savings of $875 a month, or $10,500 per year. Living with two roommates brings that monthly savings to $1,117, or $13,404 for the year.
Manhattan is more expensive, with a one-bedroom costing a median $2,745. Adding one roommate to the mix saves you $795 monthly, and with two, $980 monthly, the report found.
In the Bronx and Queens, the amount-per-month a new grad would save by partnering up shrinks, but so do the rents overall, StreetEasy noted.
In Queens, a studio or one-bedroom costs a median $1,750. Living with one roommate would save a new grad $602 a month or $833 with two, compared to living in Queens alone.
In the Bronx, living alone costs a median price of $1,488, but getting one roommate leads to a savings of $538 per month, and two roommates saves you $695 per month.
If you want to plan in even more detail just how much living with roommates would save you, StreetEasy put together a table that compares those prices by neighborhood; check that out here.
