Comptroller Reports on Rising Rents

Apartment rents in the city are about 75 percent higher than they were in 2000, according to a recently released report on housing affordability from city Comptroller Scott Stringer. The median apartment rent in the city surged 75 percent to $1,100 between 2000 and 2012. That's 31 percent higher than the average in the rest of the U.S. The median rent was $630 in 2000; inflation accounts for about $200 of the $470 increase since then.

There are also 360,000 fewer units renting for between $400 a month to $1,000 a month (in 2012 dollars) compared to a decade ago. Many more now rent for between $1,200 and $1,600.

The 40-page report also provides a data-driven look at the effects of gentrification on certain neighborhoods. Rents in desirable Brooklyn neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Fort Greene have climbed over the last 12 years, 76 percent and 58 percent respectively, as the number of households earning in excess of $100,000 has doubled and sometimes tripled. 

According to the report, Staten Island has the lowest average rents for market-rate apartments—at $1,090 a month—in the city. The borough, which is undergoing a development boom on the North Shore, also had among the lowest average rents for rent-stabilized units in the five boroughs, the report says. Those in rent-stabilized apartments here paid the second-lowest average rents in the city in 2011, at $1,096 per month. The Bronx had the lowest average rent for rent-stabilized apartments, at $1,091 per month.