| For a good number of years now, renters of NYC | | | | feel those dollars just pouring out of your wallet, like a |
| apartments have had the extreme displeasure of | | | | crisp waterfall on a spring day? Sometimes I think |
| paying the highest rents in the country. A new report | | | | landlords in the city just sit outside and watch people |
| suggests that the city is entering 2008 with a | | | | walk in and out of their buildings and make a cash |
| continuing hold on the unfortunate and smudged crown | | | | register noise inside their heads, "ka-ching, ka-ching," as |
| which signifies its role as the most expensive city for | | | | their tenants walk by. The next closest city was San |
| renters in the country. | | | | Francisco, but its median rental rate was a full |
| The new report - by the major California real estate | | | | thousand dollars less than New York City. It stood at |
| investment firm, Marcus & Millichap - suggests that, at | | | | just $1,904. |
| least insofar as median rentalrates, NYC apartments | | | | In fairness to the equally cash-pressed San |
| far surpass those any other city in the country. The | | | | Franciscans, though, these numbers are a bit deceiving. |
| median, for those that always get them confused, is | | | | New Yorkers tend to cram more people into their |
| the number that is number that occurs most often in a | | | | apartments, so even though the apartments |
| set. So, when we say New York City's apartments | | | | themselves are more expensive, those that life in the |
| cost a median monthly rent of $2,922, what we are | | | | City by the Bay actually pay more per person. |
| really saying is that more New York apartments cost | | | | The report notes that there is more than just supply |
| $2,922 for rent a month than any other price. It's a | | | | and demand driving rental rates in the city up. Of |
| seemingly small difference between average - or | | | | course, New York City and San Francisco's low |
| mean - rental rates, but it's an important difference. | | | | vacancy rates force prices upwards, but the regional |
| Median rates are a better representative of what the | | | | inflation stemming from the high income of New |
| typical person pays, because it's not thrown off by the | | | | Yorkers and San Franciscans is what makes rental |
| super-high numbers - the luxury rentalNYC apartments, | | | | rates so astronomically high in these two cities. |
| in this case - like the mean rental rates would be. It's a | | | | Of course, while this means that rental rates are |
| funny thing about New York City, though: In many | | | | acceptable for high income earners, it means that the |
| cities, 2,922 dollars would get you something | | | | working class in New York City is pressed harder by |
| approaching a luxury apartment. | | | | the high rental rates than in any other city in the |
| Here, though, it gets you the median. Can't you almost | | | | country. |