Can You Actually Afford Your Rent?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/30/realestate/can-you-actually-afford-your-rent.html

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Most New Yorkers are well aware that rents are high. But let’s assume you make a decent living. In fact, you earn the median income for your area. Does it follow that you can afford an average-size apartment without being what is considered “rent burdened” — spending more than 30 percent of your income on rent?

A recent study by RentCafé considered that question by comparing rents, apartment sizes and median incomes in the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the United States, with Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens added to the mix as individual markets. The company found that in only 14 markets could median earners afford an average or larger-than-average apartment without being rent burdened. Perhaps unsurprisingly, New York City was not among them.

So how much space can you reasonably afford? Below are the markets where a median income will buy the most space, and the least. (Sorry, Brooklynites, you’re out of luck.)

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