These are NYC’s cheapest neighborhoods and what you must earn to live there: report

Why NYC neighborhoods experience different weather

New York City is often called a ?concrete jungle? covering around 469 square miles of space. The five boroughs are made up of man made infrastructure, 520 miles of coastline and hundreds of green spaces. All of that can cause the weather to drastically vary neighborhood to neighborhood. FOX 5 NY?s Audrey Puente explains why this happens.

NEW YORK - New York City may be one of the most expensive places to rent in the country, but renters can still find apartments well below the city’s median monthly rent — if they know where to look.

SKIP TO: What income do you need to rent in NYC?

What we know:

A new report by rental platform Zumper found the 15 cheapest neighborhoods in the five boroughs are largely clustered in the Bronx and eastern Queens.

Zumper is a rental marketplace that aggregates listings and publishes regular research on rental prices in major cities, using data from its platform to track housing trends.

Cheapest neighborhoods

FILE - Residential apartment buildings are seen on July 26, 2022, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

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Median rents in the most affordable areas range from $1,800 to $2,525 a month, or roughly 43% to 59% below the citywide median, according to Zumper’s analysis of listings across all bedroom types over a 30-day period.

Bronx

Parkchester in the Bronx ranked as the cheapest neighborhood, with a median rent of $1,800 per month. That’s $2,600 less than the citywide median, or about 59% lower, the report said.

Pelham Bay ($1,995) and Riverdale ($2,040), also in the Bronx, followed. 

Manhattan

Other neighborhoods rounding out the top five were Kingsbridge in the Bronx ($2,331) and Inwood in northern Manhattan ($2,337).

Queens

In Queens, East Elmhurst and Briarwood both had median rents of $2,350, while Flushing came in at $2,400. 

Brooklyn

In Brooklyn, Bay Ridge had a median rent of $2,375, according to the report.

What income do you need to rent in NYC?

Traditional tenement buildings are now expensive rental apartments, November 4, 2022 on Orchard Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City, New York. (Photo by Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)

Using the standard guideline that rent should not exceed 30% of a renter’s gross income, someone would need to earn about $176,000 annually to afford the city’s $4,400 median rent, Zumper found.

By comparison, New York City’s median household income is roughly $70,000 to $80,000, highlighting what housing advocates often describe as a widespread affordability gap.

In lower-cost neighborhoods, the income required drops significantly. For example:

• Parkchester ($1,800) requires an annual income of about $72,000.
• Pelham Bay ($1,995) requires about $79,800.
• Kingsbridge ($2,331) requires about $93,240.
• Flushing ($2,400) requires about $96,000.
• Jackson Heights ($2,525) requires about $101,000.

The report notes that while these neighborhoods offer lower median rents, individual apartment prices can vary.

Many of the more affordable areas are farther from Manhattan’s core but still have strong subway access and high walkability scores, making them attractive to renters seeking lower costs without giving up transit access, according to Zumper.

See the full report here.