How About Renting in NY?

So we don't have the $2,000,000 to lay down for a nice pad in NYC. Would renting be an option? The Real Estate Group New York, which produces monthly Manhattan rental reports, has come out with it's April Report. The latest figures show that there was an uptick in rental prices, but most places are still pretty cheap when compared to last years.

Now cheap is a relative thing. I believe that prices are still crazy. Two bedroom apartments in the Lower East Side are running at $3000/month on average. If you factor that your gross annual income should be about 45x the monthly rental, that comes out to a salary of $135,000 a year. Still though, using a calculator for take home pay, that salary translates to about $7000/month. This means the average rental would be 43% of monthly take home pay. That is ridiculous!

Even areas like Harlem run about $2000/month, which requires a $90,000 salary. Also, these rate are for non-doorman apartments. You want a doorman, be prepared to spend another $1000/month. That is some price for the luxury.

So, this means that renting is not a good option unless I had a super well paying job. We would need at least a 3 bedroom apartment in a good neighborhood. That means paying almost $4000/month which requires a $180,000 combined salary. Right now we are almost surviving with a single income, so would like to maintain that as long as possible.