One-bedroom units in Queens have the second-highest rent-to-income ratio in the United States, according to Apartments.com.
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Queens was ranked among the top six least affordable real estate markets for renters of one-bedroom units, with 54.7% of the median household income for residents of these units going towards rent, according to a quarterly RentPulse analysis by Apartments.com.
The report found the median household income in Queens to be $71,116 a year. The average monthly rent for these units was $3,436 a month. Based on the calculations, renters would be spending $41,232 of the $71,116 they make on rent. The 54.7% rent-to-income ratio in Queens is more than double the national average of 23.3% and the second-highest among all cities in the study.
New York City as a whole faces poor affordability pressures. In addition to Queens, the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx also rank among the top six least affordable markets in the United States.
Manhattan has the highest rent-to-income ratio among all the cities included in the analysis, with 69.3% of the $71,116 median household income going towards rent for one-bedroom units there, which cost $4,104 a month.
In Brooklyn, the median household income is $70,259 and the average rent of one-bedroom units is $2,994. The rent-to-income ratio in this borough is 51.1%, ranking third overall in the study.
The Bronx has a rent-to-income ratio of 44.8%, based on the median household income of $43,702 and average monthly rent of $1,633, which is slightly lower than the national average of $1,641. Other than the New York City boroughs of Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, the only other cities in the study with a higher rent-to-income ratio than the Bronx are Miami, Florida, at 51%, and Boston, Massachusetts, at 50.4%.
On a national level, the median household income is $84,646. The current average rent for one-bedroom units is $1,641 a month in the United States. Based on the median income and monthly rent, the rent-to-income ratio is 23.3%.