The New York Census LineNEW YORK CITY · 5 BOROUGHS
Housing · the Q line

The Rent Line

New York is a city of renters: 67% of households rent their home. The citywide median gross rent is $1,821 a month, and 52% of renter households are rent-burdened, meaning they spend 30% or more of their income on rent.

Ride the Q from the Upper East Side to Coney Island. At each stop the card compares that neighborhood with all 55. Dots on the map are 9,551 buildings with city-financed affordable units (blue = new construction, teal = preservation).

Q
96 St to Coney Island: what a month of rent buys, and what it costs.
Now arriving · Upper East Side (96 St)
UPPER EAST SIDEMIDTOWNCHINATOWN & LESDOWNTOWN BROOKLYNFLATBUSHSHEEPSHEAD BAYCONEY ISLAND
Median gross rent
$1,492$1,707$1,888$2,141
Quintiles of 55 neighborhoods
Dots: affordable housing buildings
New construction Preserved
Bigger dot = more affordable units
Along the line

Rent and rent burden at every stop on the Q

Click a stop to go there. The dashed line is the NYC value.

Median gross rent

$0$1,000$2,000$3,000$4,000NYC $1,821$2,843$3,279$1,412$2,944$1,770$1,705$1,363

Rent-burdened households

0%20%40%60%80%NYC 52%43%UPPER EAST SIDE45%MIDTOWN50%CHINATOWN & LES40%DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN52%FLATBUSH56%SHEEPSHEAD BAY63%CONEY ISLAND
All 55 neighborhoods

Does rent burden follow income or rent?

Each dot is a neighborhood (Census PUMA). The dashed line is the least-squares fit.

30%40%50%60%70%$50,000$100,000$150,000$200,000Median household income →Rent-burdened households →
Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island On this linePearson r = -0.79 · n = 55
30%40%50%60%70%$1,000$1,500$2,000$2,500$3,000$3,500Median gross rent →Rent-burdened households →
Bronx Brooklyn Manhattan Queens Staten Island On this linePearson r = -0.75 · n = 55
Over time

Median rent, adjusted for inflation

ACS 1-year estimates in 2024 dollars (CPI-U).

$1,200$1,400$1,600$1,800$2,000$2,200$2,4002011201320152017201920222024no 2020 dataManhattanQueensBrooklynNYCStaten IslandBronx
Findings

What the Q line tells us

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3.0×

The rent gap

Median gross rent in Financial District (Manhattan) is $3,501+, 3.0 times the $1,156 in Melrose (Bronx). The Census top-codes high rents, so the real gap is wider.

Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year, 55 PUMAs

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r = -0.79

Burden follows income more than rent

Across neighborhoods, the share of rent-burdened households has a strong negative relationship with median income (r = -0.79) and a strong negative relationship with median rent (r = -0.75). The cheapest places to rent are often where rent takes the biggest bite out of income.

Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year, 55 PUMAs · Pearson correlation

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39 of 55

Neighborhoods where most renters are burdened

In 39 neighborhoods, at least half of renter households spend 30% or more of income on rent. Citywide the share is 52% (± 0.4 pts), and 29% spend half or more.

Census ACS 2020–2024 5-year, 55 PUMAs

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+11%

Real rent, 2011 → 2024

In 2024 dollars, NYC's median gross rent went from $1,629 to $1,811. The biggest change was in Brooklyn (+18%), the smallest in Bronx (+3%).

Census ACS 1-year, 2011–2024 · CPI-U adjusted

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320,946

Affordable units the city has financed

Since 2014, NYC's housing plans have counted 320,946 affordable units, new and preserved. Bronx has the most (33%). Per renter household, Co-op City (Bronx) leads with 559.3 units per 1,000.

NYC Open Data, Affordable Housing Production by Building (HPD)