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Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

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Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#571

Post by frutiger »

legohead wrote: post #546
ctvo wrote: post #390

The problem for me, as a long time NYC resident, is that there's no other place in America I want to live even with work from home as a possibility. I like mass transit. I like not owning a car. I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. I like that it's the center for tech on the east coast, the arts for the entire country, and finance for most of the world. I like that we generally get along…

Have you been affected by the rent increase yet? Curious how much power the landlords have there. Can they raise your rent without warning, are they trying to force you out, etc.

They can't push you out. In uncontrolled apartments, the rent gets renegotiated at the end of every lease term (usually 1 or 2 years).

There are exceptions for rent controlled and rent stabilized apartments, where the landlords have even less power on price setting.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#572

Post by thehappypm »

dayvid wrote: post #563
thehappypm wrote: post #541

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see Boston as the tech hub of the East more than NYC. New York obviously has a large number of tech jobs, but Boston and DC both have a higher concentration of tech; in NYC the big fish is obviously finance. I discount DC a little because a lot of that is government and defense related (not a bad thing, just not my cup of tea). Boston has a lot of diversity in tech, lots of health/pharma like Moderna, web companies…

Boston's interesting in that it feels more low-key than NYC or Silicon Valley. Most of the biotech companies feel a lot more secretive and I don't see as many public events. The valley has a vibe in that everyone you meet is involved in tech work in some way and will talk about it to you or in public. It doesn't feel that way here, or you have to be a part of certain circles maybe. There are some small biotech meetup…

That vibe definitely exist, in Cambridge and Somerville, and maybe the Seaport, where the tech folks love to live. Everyone in Camberville seems to be in tech or tech adjacent.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#573

Post by googlryas »

simonsarris wrote: post #436
ctvo wrote: post #390

The problem for me, as a long time NYC resident, is that there's no other place in America I want to live even with work from home as a possibility. I like mass transit. I like not owning a car. I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. I like that it's the center for tech on the east coast, the arts for the entire country, and finance for most of the world. I like that we generally get along…

> I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. Coming from New Hampshire: this is just fantastically untrue. NYC is about one hundred times more violent than where I live. It is so thoroughly not the same that I can usually tell when people come from cities simply based on how nervous they are. I think most people don't realize how badly it affects them, or how violent cities are versus "the rest…

Presumably OP was just talking about Manhattan or something, maybe even Manhattan below 110th st, and not the less nice parts of the Bronx or Queens or Brooklyn that they never go to.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#574

Post by kortilla »

greenie_beans wrote: post #518
DeathArrow wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Many attempts at public housing failed because they just tried to provide housing for low-income people in separated and/or undesirable areas, with a predictable outcome. So the taxpayers should pay so the people with low income or no income can live iny Manhattan? Why not also provide them with expensive cars and exotic vacations?

so the low-income workers should be required to commute into manhattan so they can take care of wealthy people?

They don’t need to go into Manhattan at all.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#575

Post by bradlys »

diehunde wrote: post #569
jononomo wrote: post #68

I decided about four years ago that it just doesn’t make sense to live in NYC if you’re not making $200k/year consistently. Also, I was surprised at how many people without an original thought in their head earn $200k/year in NYC —- the city rewards a sort of dull ambition. Do you want to hang out with people who are intelligent and ambitious yet somehow fail to be interesting? If so, then NYC is for you!

How much is the take-home pay if you make $200k a year? About 12K a month? A rent of 5k would take away almost half of that. A $4K rent would be at the limit of the 1/3 recommendation but not sure what you can find these days for a $4K rent. It's doable, but I don't think it's sustainable if you want to save money or live comfortably

Closer to $10k. There are calculators online to figure this out btw.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#576

Post by googlryas »

vjk800 wrote: post #476
simonsarris wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. Coming from New Hampshire: this is just fantastically untrue. NYC is about one hundred times more violent than where I live. It is so thoroughly not the same that I can usually tell when people come from cities simply based on how nervous they are. I think most people don't realize how badly it affects them, or how violent cities are versus "the rest…

Indeed. I come from a rural village where I could leave my bicycle unlocked over night at the center of the village and it wouldn't get stolen. When I moved to a city, one realization I made was that cycling is just a lot less convenient if you have to worry about your bicycle getting stolen. Also I can't leave my home door unlocked when I go somewhere (and thus have to remember to take the keys with me). I think sma…

There are big city fixes for this. For example, most big cities offer bikeshares with docking stations all over the most popular places. So you can just use one of those bikes and not have to worry about theft.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#577

Post by JackFr »

vjk800 wrote: post #476
simonsarris wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. Coming from New Hampshire: this is just fantastically untrue. NYC is about one hundred times more violent than where I live. It is so thoroughly not the same that I can usually tell when people come from cities simply based on how nervous they are. I think most people don't realize how badly it affects them, or how violent cities are versus "the rest…

Indeed. I come from a rural village where I could leave my bicycle unlocked over night at the center of the village and it wouldn't get stolen. When I moved to a city, one realization I made was that cycling is just a lot less convenient if you have to worry about your bicycle getting stolen. Also I can't leave my home door unlocked when I go somewhere (and thus have to remember to take the keys with me). I think sma…

Haven’t locked my door in 25 years in NYC.

(I am in a doorman building.)

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#578

Post by TameAntelope »

JustSomeNobody wrote: post #412
TameAntelope wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> no one is going to commute 90 minutes for a minimum wage job when there are plenty of jobs available elsewhere. They absolutely will, this concern has never really made sense to me. Poverty is like a badge of honor for many folks, and the harder one works for the lower the pay ends up being a little game some folks like to engage in, almost as a self flagellation; "I suffer therefore I'm noble." Just look at some o…

That's an ... interesting take. Another is these people are stuck. It takes money to pack up and leave. If the everything is costing more and more and more, their ability to save and leave goes down and down and down. Eventually they'll be forced to leave (somehow); the haves will see to it. > "I suffer therefore I'm noble." That's cruel.

It's as cruel as life. Pretending like there aren't any negative learned behaviors that cause vicious cycles from poverty is naive. When all you know is suffering, the human mind has to come up with some justification for it, some reason it's "worth" continuing on. Nobility is often that conjured reason.

Have you really never met anyone who's oddly proud of how hard they work, despite how little they earn? I grew up around these people, this view was more common than drug use, more common than gambling, almost consensus that the poor folks were the real heroes of the story.

"Stuck" is indeed the right word, but no they won't get "unstuck"; their lives will just get worse and worse. Like I said, there's just so much lower we can go here, people don't even realize where the bottom is.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#579

Post by sparc24 »

ctvo wrote: post #390

The problem for me, as a long time NYC resident, is that there's no other place in America I want to live even with work from home as a possibility. I like mass transit. I like not owning a car. I like that the city is generally safer than the rest of America. I like that it's the center for tech on the east coast, the arts for the entire country, and finance for most of the world. I like that we generally get along…

Everyone should spend a couple of early years in NYC. You'll be better off for it even you end up moving to New Hampshire.

Re: Manhattan rents cross $5k threshold for first time

#580

Post by inglor_cz »

paulgb wrote: post #423
inglor_cz wrote: post #405

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you really like mass transit and want to live without a car, America is probably not for you. USA got rid of most streetcar systems a long time ago and rebuilding them from scratch in current NIMBY climate is basically impossible. And subways, which are much more expensive than ground transit, only make economic sense in several metropolises. Try some European city with reasonable rents like Warsaw. Even the skysc…

There’s no fundamental reason “America is probably not for” people who want high-quality, dense urbanism. The rent in NYC is a clear sign that there’s demand for it.

Depends on what you call "fundamental reason".

Building new mass transport systems like light rail in existing cities from scratch requires a lot of political momentum, basically willingness to crush the pervasive NIMBY mentality and overcome the pull of bureaucratic inertia. Even in European cities that never dismantled their light rail systems, inhabitants often fight back against line extensions, citing noise concerns etc., and are able to delay the construction for years or decades.

Plus such systems aren't cheap and usually require new subsidies on top of existing subsidies. You will still have to maintain the existing road system and bridges, their usage won't drop to zero or even a quarter of current traffic. Some people won't voluntarily switch to public transit ever, for all kinds of reasons.

Maybe this isn't "fundamental", but IMHO the hurdles to overcome are really high and I am not sure if there is any city in the US willing to try this and having the means to do so.

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