Can I Afford the Rent in NYC?
Before diving into your search that perfect NYC rental, you should know if you can afford the rent. NYC rentals come in all sorts of price ranges from affordable rental apartments in walk up buildings to units in high-end condos. So if you’re looking to get a rental in NYC, it would be helpful to know how much rent you can afford from the landlord’s perspective.
In this article, you’ll learn to calculate how much rent you can afford using the same formula landlords use. If you are more concerned with the actual cash needed up front when signing the lease, you should read this article instead.
NOTE: To search for NYC apartments, go to frele.com (free service). Or, click for more rental tips
How Landlords Determine Affordability (The Rent Calculator)
The formula landlords use to determine if you can afford the rent tends to be on the conservative side. Therefore, using their formula for your own personal understanding of affordability is probably a good idea. Of course, this assume you don’t have any unusual expenses.
To get right down to it, most NYC landlords think you can afford the rent if your gross salary is at least 40 times the monthly rent. Gross salary refers to your salary before tax deductions. For example, let’s say you have your eye on a $2200 apartment. The typical NYC landlord would require you to have a gross annual salary that is 40 times the monthly rent in order to afford the rent.
That is, $2200*40 = $88,000.
Note that some landlords require a gross salary that’s 45 or 50 times the rent instead of 40 times the rent, but these are few and far between.
The Rent Calculator (Based on my salary, what is the maximum rent I can afford?)
Here is the rent calculation formula used by landlords to tell if you can afford the rent in NYC.
Let’s say you have a gross salary of $55,000. Based on this rent calculator, here is the maximum monthly rent you can afford:
So, Can You Afford The Rent in New York City?
Now that you know how much rent can you afford, you may want to check out the average rent in NYC by going to this blog post. When calculating rent, be sure to set a budget that works for you. It will help you find NYC apartments where you can afford the rent, hopefully for the long-term. You can start your search for NYC rentals at Frele.com.
For more NYC rental tips, please go to frele.com/learn.
This article was written by:
Phil Horigan, NYC Real Estate Veteran
Founder, Frēlē, the free and honest NYC rental marketplace
Producer, Phil’s NYC Rental Tips [YouTube Channel]
Blogger: flowfreely.com
Instagram: @philiphorigan
Phil has been a licensed NYC real estate agent since 2004 working for some of the top real estate brokerage firms in the industry. He founded Leasebreak.com in 2013, and Frēlē in 2017. Frēlē and Leasebreak are free and transparent rental marketplaces to search for or post apartments for rent in NYC
Go to frele.com to search for NYC apartments (free service).