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Too Good to be True
New York City real estate during a pandemic
In case you’re revving up to make The Big Move, gotta tell you that these numbers no longer exist. The Google tells me that the median rent on a one-bedroom in Manhattan is now north of $3,000 per month. Cough cough. Updated 6/8/22
If you’re at all familiar with rents in cities like New York or San Fran, you might think I’ve doctored the above photos. While I don’t necessarily recommend Craigslist as a reputable place in which to find your next apartment, it is an interesting place to keep an eye on rents. And those are actual current rents in the city. Mostly the outer boroughs, but the odd Manhattan listing does show up occasionally.
And, yes Sunshine, rents have finally begun to go down. At first, it was just the luxury rentals dropping from eighteen kajillion dollars a month to eight kajillion. Now we’re talking real-people rents.
When I moved to the city in 2000 I was warned by all the sensible adults in my life that I would never find an apartment I could afford to live in by myself. Spoiler: it took 15 months but I did find a rent-stabilized, one-bedroom apartment in an elevator building…
