Making the median household income in New York City and wanting to live in “affordable” housing means you’ll have to settle for a glorified broom closet in Manhattan.
Photo: Stephanie Keith/Bloomberg/Getty Images
It perhaps goes without saying that the typical New Yorker’s salary won’t get you much in terms of actual living space, but now we can say exactly how little it gets you. According to some number crunching at the New York Times, if you’re hoping to spend less than 30 percent of your income on housing (the threshold of what’s considered “affordable”), the median household income in New York City — about $77,000 — will get you a Manhattan apartment of roughly 275 square feet. That is, for reference, more or less a hotel room. And not a particularly grand one.
The Times analysis of data from RentCafe and the firm Yardi Matrix found that your dollar will get you a teeny bit more space in Brooklyn — an extra 104 square feet — and a luxurious 441 square feet in Queens. To put a finer point on it: Most New Yorkers can afford what’s essentially a micro-apartment.
Which is maybe why many real-estate executives and city lawmakers have tried, to various levels of success, to make those a thing in the city. In 2012, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg launched a pilot program to develop the first micro-unit building, which he called “housing that matches how New Yorkers live today.” That meant units that would be 275 square feet to 300 square feet, including kitchen and bathroom space. (Those first rented for just over $2,700 a month in 2016.) We’ve even made the case for the return of the SRO here before.
If you’re curious what this kind of apartment might look and feel like, there’s a TikTok genre of interior-décor videos made by people living in the teeniest apartments the city has to offer. These micro-influencers share storage tips (and Amazon affiliate links, of course) to things like a $489 daybed with storage.
Until — and if — the City of Yes family-size apartment dividends ever pay out, these are the options we appear to be left with. But there are non-bleak versions of tiny living out there: My colleague Wendy Goodman recently profiled the 275-square-foot home of Claude-Noëlle Toly, who managed to turn a third-floor swatch on Bleecker Street into “her own little Avignon.” There are French doors that lead to a balcony, terra-cotta floors, and a two-burner stove beneath custom cupboards. She’s even got in-unit washing.