One Third of NYC Residents Spend Half of Annual Income on Rent

Wallets are getting tighter.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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Welcome to New York City, where your rent eats up half of your salary—unless you're just filthy rich. NYU's Furman Centerrecently published a study which shows that the city's median monthly rent jumped 8.4 percent between 2007 and 2011. Worse, a third of NYC residents are spending at least half of their annual income just to pay up. 

During this same four-year period, median household income dipped to $50,433, a 7 percent decrease. Also adding to the squeeze is the fact that New York City's population increased by 166,855 between 2000 and 2010.

According to Furman Center director Vicki Been, the recession didn't scare people away from New York City. "The recession did not stop people from moving to New York City; we have seen sustained population growth and the rental vacancy rates remained the lowest among the five largest U.S. cities," Been said via press release.The problem is that the resources necessary to accodomate this influx of people are scarce.

The lone upside here, as Gothamist mentioned, is that this has done wonders for diversity in the city. Soon enough, all races will join together and create a super race known as "broke."

[via Gothamist]

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