The Grove Astoria
Jan. 4, 2017 By Hannah Wulkan
High-income renters are flooding into Queens, according to a recent study.
Wealthy residents of New York City have shown a preference for renting rather than owning homes over the last decade, a new report from RentCafe shows, with the number of affluent renters more than tripling in Queens over the last decade.
After Brooklyn, Queens has seen the second largest influx of wealthy renters over the last 10 years by percentage.
Queens saw a jump in high-income renters from 8,486 households to 29,473 households, or 247 percent, over the last decade, compared to the city as a whole, which saw an increase by 137 percent.
The report defined high-income renters as households earning more than $150,000 per year, and found that about a fifth of New York City renters qualified as high-income, or 211,482 households, which is more than all the affluent renters in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, San Jose, and San Diego combined.
The report points out that an influx in wealthy renters is a sign of gentrification, with about seven percent of Queens renters now making more than $150,000 per year.
It also shows that citywide the gap between wealthy renters and wealthy homeowners is closing, indicating that owning a home in the city is becoming less affordable, with the median price of buying a home jumping by nearly 44 percent citywide in the last 10 years.
“The seemingly unstoppable growth rate is causing many well-to-do people to turn away from homeownership and choose to rent instead,” the report reads.
In Queens, there are nearly twice as many wealthy homeowners than wealthy renters, but homeownership in the bracket only increased by 111 percent over the last decade, with home prices in Queens rising by about 3.5 percent.
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3 Comments
Where do people who make less money go to live especially the old people who are living on fixed income, because the money social security is giving them is a joke. And before anybody answers this remember we are all going to be old one day and have the same thing happen.
If you are old and living on a fixed income from social security then the choice is clear, move. Why should that person be living in Manhattan? It just doesn’t make sense. There is a reason many people retire in Florida or Arizona, nobody is stuck or forced to live in a place that they can no longer afford. That’s like saying we need to lower the price of filet mignon so poor people can eat it too. That’s just stupid. There are still plenty of areas in this country that are affordable and I’m sorry if you are a fixed income person with only social security income coming in but you don’t need to be living in a waterfront condo in Long Island City. This notion that people deserve to live in certain places even if they can’t afford it is just crazy to me. Ahh, Mercedes, I can’t afford your car so you’re gonna have to lower the price so I can buy one, I really like it. Move to Texas folks, much better bang or your buck.
So the old people who have been living there forever should be chased out of their neighborhood? It’s not just them, I know people in there 20s, 30s, 40s, who can’t afford to live here anymore. They either have multiple roommates or are still living with their family.