Here are a few sobering passages straight from the report's news release:
In the six years since the recession, data paint a mixed picture of New York City’s recovery...
The city’s housing market showed signs of recovery — including sustained employment growth, rising home sales, and increased housing prices—but also showed increasing affordability challenges for New York City renters.
Since the recession, stagnant incomes and rising rents have led to an increase in rent burdens. In 2011, 24 percent of New Yorkers were moderately rent burdened (spending 30 to 50 percent of their income on rent) and 31 percent of New Yorkers were severely rent burdened (spending 50 percent or more of their income on rent), according to the report.
Between 2007 and 2011, a period when house prices citywide fell by 20 percent, the median monthly gross rent citywide increased by 8.6 percent, from $1,096 to $1,191. During that same period, median household income decreased 6.8 percent, dropping from $54,127 to $50,433.
The report for Manhattan is broken down into 12 community districts, with the East Village presumably landing in the Lower East Side/Chinatown bracket. (Find that PDF here.)
A few stats from that report...
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You can find a PDF of the report for Manhattan here.
I'm living this scenario and I know a lot of my neighbors must be also. In Manhattan, it's literally become shameful to be "poor" when rent here is 3X the national average and the housing stock is, in some cases for those of us in tenement buildings, crumbling. Why are we so afraid to start this discussion?
ReplyDelete"In 2011, 24 percent of New Yorkers were moderately rent burdened (spending 30 to 50 percent of their income on rent) and 31 percent of New Yorkers were severely rent burdened (spending 50 percent or more of their income on rent)."
Forget healthcare, I'm at the point where getting new shoes is a big deal, theatre is a distant memory, and pay-what-you-wish is loose change.