The Big Apple has become so unaffordable, even six-figure salary earners are finding themselves priced out.
That’s according to a new report from real estate listings website StreetEasy, which says that New York City apartments have become so expensive, it’s not just lower income households struggling to pay rent. Those in the tech sector, where annual wages are $135,089 — 52% higher than average — could afford only one in three NYC rentals on the market in 2023.
For entry-level tech workers, who make an average salary of $75,262, only 2.1% of studio and one-bedroom rentals were within reach, which StreetEasy defines as costing less than 30% of gross annual income.
As a result, newly graduated techies are incentivized to take jobs in more affordable metros, “making it harder for NYC employers to hire and retain these workers eager to start their new careers,” the report says.
The housing crisis is the worst in Manhattan, where 87% of the borough’s tech sector jobs are located. It’s also where the median asking rent was $4,000 in 2023, and where entry-level tech workers could thus afford just 0.6% of rental inventory.
This problem is in large part due to a dire housing shortage that has only worsened over the past 10 years, as the lack of apartment supply has failed to keep up with demand.
Indeed, when it comes to America’s worst housing shortage, Gotham easily takes the top slot, StreetEasy reports.
Although the San Francisco, Chicago and Boston metro areas often share the top positions and sometimes surpass New York in rankings of the nation’s most challenging real estate markets, the boroughs’ deficit of 380,047 homes is more than the aforementioned cities’ deficits combined.
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