A new study has found that Manhattanites put a higher percentage of their income towards rent than almost all of their fellow Americans.
Fresh findings from apartment listings service RentCafe show that living in New York requires a much bigger chunk of income than almost any other city in the States.
To determine this, researchers “calculated an income-to-rent ratio for each city to show how much higher the monthly income was compared to the monthly rent. Then, we took the disposable income left after paying rent to see how well this amount could cover the local price of typical expenses in several categories each month,” including utilities, food, healthcare, transportation, goods and services, according to a writeup of the findings.
In other words, after paying for rent, New Yorkers have very little income left to spend elsewhere.
In an analysis of 189 US metros’ median incomes, average rents and average prices for basic necessities, RentCafe determined that — in terms of relative income-to-rent — Manhattan ranks third-to-last, with Brooklyn right behind it in fourth-to-last.
It’s no surprise: NYC’s ongoing affordable housing crisis has only gotten worse in recent years, with no end in sight.
Only Boston and Auburn, Alabama scored worse, with Auburn getting dead last across all other measured income ratios — income to utilities, income to food and income to healthcare among them.
At the other end of the rankings, California’s Sunnyvale scored the title of US city where paychecks go the farthest.
“Renters can get the most out of their income in Silicon Valley’s Sunnyvale, where the highest median wages in the nation make it easier to cover living expenses,” the report explained.
In second place was the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, and in third was Washington, DC suburb Arlington, Virginia.
The country’s southeastern cities generally ranked high, and made up nine cities in RentCafe’s top 30, more than any other region.