The city's rental vacancy rate fell to its lowest level since 1968.

The city’s rental vacancy rate fell to its lowest level since 1968.

New York City’s housing market is the tightest it’s been in more than five decades, with just 1.4 percent of rental apartments vacant and available, a new survey found.

The citywide vacancy rate stands at its lowest since 1968, qualifying as a certified “housing emergency.” The report offers a striking illustration of the shortage: Residential construction has failed to keep pace with demand and low-cost homes in particular have become exceedingly scarce, threatening the ability of financially struggling residents to live in the nation’s largest city, according to the findings from the city’s housing agency.

As a result, lower-income New Yorkers are spending more of their paychecks on rent. Among households earning less than $25,000 per year without rental assistance, 86 percent were severely rent-burdened — defined as paying more than half of one’s income on rent. The survey also found an “alarming increase” in missed payments and arrears.

  • @ripcord
    15•7 months ago

    I’m having a tough time believing any household earning less than 25k is able to rent anywhere near NYC without assistance, even with rent control.

    Like, even if rent was free you’d think cost of living would take up all money, so how could anything be available for rent

      • @pete_the_catEnglish
        5•7 months ago

        Try about 85-90k for a studio anywhere in Manhattan below 80th St. I moved to Hell’s Kitchen in 2017 and was paying $2685 for a “luxury” (gym, laundry in the building, etc…) 450 or less SQ ft studio and was making 85k/year and that was easily 60% of my monthly income.

        In 2021 I moved down to The Financial District and got a much larger studio (because buildings were hurting for income) for $2500/month but in 2022 when everything started to open back up the increased the rent for the new lease to $3500.

        I moved about an hour out into Brooklyn (Windsor Terrace) and got a 1 BR in a “basic” apartment (only laundry in the basement) for $2500/months.

        “Luckily” about 3 weeks before my lease was up I lost my job and made the smart decision to move out of NYC and the area completely. I live down in Miami now, which is just as expensive (I’m in their Financial District, Brickell) but I get a lot more for my money and it’s a hell of a lot nicer. My rent is $100 more a month and I have W/D in my apartment and a pool, along with all the other “luxury” amenities that you’d find in a mid-high end (3-5 grand a month) Manhattan apartment.

    • @pete_the_catEnglish
      3•7 months ago

      You can’t even sneeze in NYC for 25k. I was making 50K and living in Hoboken in 2016 and was just barely scraping by, and my rent was only about $1600/month.

      60k is probably the bare minimum for non-section 8, and that’s gonna be a tiny little dog shit apartment, unless you’re far out in one of the boroughs other than Manhattan. A friend was paying $800/month for an apartment… But she was down in Great Kills in Staten Island, living in an above the garage apartment attached to a house. It was like a 45-50 minute drive for her to get into Lower Manhattan.

      Last year I lived in a 1 BR by myself an hour away from Manhattan (by subway, about a half hour drive) and it was $2500/month for about 550 SQ ft with two built in AC units, a dishwasher, and paid laundry in the basement.