{"id":358925,"date":"2026-09-28T16:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358925\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T16:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T16:32:08","slug":"nyc-renters-need-153000-to-afford-a-studio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/358925\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC renters need $153,000 to afford a studio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Living alone in New York City still requires a very Carrie Bradshaw-sized fantasy<\/a> budget \u2014 or, more realistically, a six-figure salary.<\/p>\n

A solo renter in New York would need to earn $153,600 a year before taxes to comfortably afford the city\u2019s typical studio, according to The Economist\u2019s latest \u201cCarrie Bradshaw Index<\/a>,\u201d named for the \u201cSex and the City\u201d heroine famous for living alone in Manhattan <\/a>on a columnist\u2019s salary.<\/p>\n

The typical studio payment in New York is $3,840 a month, according to the index, which assumes renters should spend no more than 30% of their gross income on housing.<\/p>\n

The index is named after Carrie Bradshaw and her famously enviable Manhattan apartment. HBO<\/p>\n

Solo renting is getting easier \u2014 almost everywhere else<\/p>\n

There is better news for renters nationally.<\/p>\n

The number of America\u2019s 100 biggest cities that the index considers unaffordable for an average earner has fallen to 30 \u2014 the lowest since The Economist began the index three years ago.<\/p>\n

Nationwide, renters who want to live alone now need to earn about $150 less per month than they did a year ago.<\/p>\n

A surge of newly completed apartments has helped ease the squeeze. The US added 695,000 apartments in 2024 \u2014 a 40-year record \u2014 followed by another 531,000 in 2025, according to The Economist.<\/p>\n

At the same time, softer demand has helped slow rent growth and prompted landlords to dangle incentives such as free months or waived fees.<\/p>\n

An apartment-building boom has helped ease the pressure on renters in many US cities. Savvapanf Photo \u00c3\u00c2\u00a9 \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Just 30 of America\u2019s 100 largest cities are unaffordable for solo renters. Studio Romantic \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

The improvement has been particularly noticeable in some smaller and less expensive markets. Cities including Oklahoma City and Lexington, Ky., posted some of the biggest affordability gains, while 11 cities crossed into affordable territory.<\/p>\n

New York, however, remains at the opposite extreme.<\/p>\n

Carrie\u2019s apartment remains a New York fantasy<\/p>\n

That makes the index\u2019s namesake especially fitting.<\/p>\n

Carrie Bradshaw famously lived by herself in a rent-controlled Upper East Side apartment despite working primarily as a newspaper columnist \u2014 a lifestyle that has long raised questions about how she actually paid for it.<\/p>\n

An inside look at Carrie Bradshaw\u2019s studio apartment. Kate Glicksberg\/Airbnb<\/p>\n

New York remains the priciest city with a typical studio costing about $3,840 a month. J-L Fl\u00c3\u00c2\u00a9mal \u2013 BE \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

And the national rental reprieve may prove temporary. The Economist notes that new construction starts have fallen sharply from their 2022 level and are now at their lowest quarterly total since 2011, potentially limiting future supply.<\/p>\n

For now, solo renters across much of America are finally catching a break.<\/p>\n

New Yorkers hoping to trade in their roommates for their own Carrie Bradshaw apartment? Not so much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Living alone in New York City still requires a very Carrie Bradshaw-sized fantasy budget \u2014 or, more realistically,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[7987,14852,3365,75,84,83,9,24,63,3028,1491,564,4753,14853,901,466],"class_list":["post-358925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-america","tag-carrie-bradshaw","tag-economy","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-oklahoma","tag-real-estate","tag-rent","tag-rentals","tag-sex-and-the-city","tag-united-states","tag-upper-east-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}