There's a place in New York City where rents are falling.
A report by the real estate firm Douglas Elliman shows median rents falling by almost 11% in the borough, while rents in Manhattan and Brooklyn continue to shoot up (the report only covers those three boroughs, which tells you something else).
If you look a little bit more closely at the numbers, though, it's still not a great situation.
For one thing, studios are crazy expensive. Studio rentals in Queens (at a median price of $2,474, and $54.83 a square foot) have not only outpaced studios in Brooklyn (median price of $2,284 and $48.83 a square foot), but have also outpaced one-bedroom rentals in Queens (median price of $2,278 and $40.32 a square foot).
What's the income required to afford a median studio in Queens, assuming you only want to spend a quarter of your income on rent (no one wants to spend more than that, surely)? $118,752.
Here's the data from Elliman:
The real lesson here is that starter apartments are a non-starter for most young people.
Good luck out there, kids.
(P.S. Here's a studio in Astoria that appears to be nothing but a bay window and a kitchen for $1,100!)
(via NY Daily News)