WEBVTT - Even Six Figures Can’t Save You From NYC’s Rent Crisis 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:08.640 Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:11.040 You know that little social media memes like you walk 0:00:11.080 --> 0:00:13.280 outside New York City just to breeze, you spent seven 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:14.080 hundred bucks. 0:00:14.280 --> 0:00:17.759 Shanee Benjamin grew up in Knarsi, Brooklyn. She left the 0:00:17.800 --> 0:00:20.560 city as a teenager, but came back in twenty thirteen 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.040 to start a career as a professional illustrator and art director. 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:26.640 I moved to Crown Heights technically like the border of 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.120 Crown Heights a week ago, and I was lucky. I 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:31.560 got a run stabilized apartment for eleven ninety five. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:35.640 But several years and apartments later, her life in New 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:37.479 York is getting harder to sustain. 0:00:38.000 --> 0:00:42.040 I have vivid memories of being on Craigslist circut twenty 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:44.880 thirteen and looking at a one bedroom for five hundred 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:49.959 bucks off at Eltdop in Williamsburg. Now knowing that that's 0:00:50.000 --> 0:00:52.440 an apartment that I saw, and now sitting pretty for 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:56.120 like maybe close a five k is just rediculous. 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.800 Shane still lives in Crown Heights, two bedroom with a 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.520 backyard that she upgraded to in twenty twenty one. She 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.600 pays thirty two hundred dollars a month and her landlord 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:10.680 just told her she's raising the price to fifty five 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.720 hundred dollars a month. Rather than swallow the rent increase, 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:18.679 Shanee decided it was time to find another spot, preferably 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.400 one in park Slope with some extra space. 0:01:22.080 --> 0:01:24.920 I have key puts, so having a backyard is great, 0:01:25.040 --> 0:01:25.240 you know. 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.319 But this time around, her apartment search has been rougher 0:01:29.440 --> 0:01:30.360 than she expected. 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:33.280 I make decent money as an illustrator. I'm making around 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.520 one fifty a year, and I am shoggling with find 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:39.440 a two legroom with an outdoor spee that isn't like 0:01:39.600 --> 0:01:41.959 forty five hundred five thousand by. 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.640 A lot of standards. Shanee makes a competitive salary, but 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.480 her story highlights a new reality in New York City 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:52.160 in the wake of unprecedented rent hikes. The rent is 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.880 too damn high, even for high earning New Yorkers. 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.160 Since the pandemic, the city has changed quite a bit, 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:03.560 and in time we've seen rents rise as high as 0:02:03.600 --> 0:02:05.520 sixty percent in some neighborhoods. 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.760 Paulina Cacero is a real estate reporter for Bloomberg. 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.440 According to the most recent New York housing vacancy survey, 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.760 they found about sixty five thousand households those earning between 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:20.200 one hundred k and three hundred k paying a third 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.080 or more of their gross income towards rent. That's tens 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:27.160 of thousands more than just four years ago. The golden 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:29.919 rule of thumb is that you shouldn't spend any more 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.919 than a third of your income on rent. So it's 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:36.000 really changing the way that people think about New York City, 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:39.280 what kind of life they can afford, and for some people, 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.840 the long term sustainability of living here. 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.760 I'm Sarah Holder, and this is the big take from 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.760 Bloomberg News Today. On the show, If six figure earners 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:54.160 in New York can't make it there, who can? How 0:02:54.160 --> 0:02:57.520 a squeezed rental market is fueling the affordability crisis in 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:06.720 America's largest city, and how some are proposing to fix it. 0:03:06.720 --> 0:03:09.400 It's no surprise that renting in New York right now 0:03:09.480 --> 0:03:13.600 is expensive, but Bloomberg real estate reporter Paulina Cacero says 0:03:14.080 --> 0:03:16.800 there's something new about who is starting to feel the 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:21.000 burden of high rents New York's growing upper middle class. 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.760 This is a group of people that you might expect 0:03:23.840 --> 0:03:27.560 to have some kind of financial security, but they're really 0:03:27.560 --> 0:03:29.120 being impacted by the rent squeeze. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:31.800 Now, I think some people might hear that higher earners 0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:34.040 in the city, people making between one hundred thousand and 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:37.240 three hundred thousand dollars a year, feel like they can't 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:39.760 afford rent and kind of scoff at it a little bit. 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:41.560 It's like, okay, but you're making a lot of money, 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:44.640 Like it's okay, But what is the takeaway here? If 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.320 it's harder for someone making six figures to find a 0:03:47.360 --> 0:03:49.840 spot without paying more than thirty percent of their income 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.400 on rent, what does that mean for everyone else. 0:03:52.800 --> 0:03:55.000 Part of what's been driving up rents in the city 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.640 and what economists have been observing since the pandemic is this. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:03:59.920 Idea of the great reshuffle. 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:04.560 Right, So, during the pandemic, COVID nineteen lockdown shuttered offices. 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:06.119 People who had. 0:04:05.920 --> 0:04:09.040 The means, More often than not, white collar workers were 0:04:09.080 --> 0:04:11.600 able to leave the city, and that provided a rare 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:16.359 opportunity for some people to get COVID deals. They moved 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.000 into neighborhoods that weren't really affordable to them, like West 0:04:20.040 --> 0:04:24.480 Village or Tribeca. But as the city kind of returned 0:04:24.480 --> 0:04:28.320 to normal. See, these higher earners, they came back, and 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.320 actually they came back in a big way, and that 0:04:31.480 --> 0:04:34.359 trickles down, right, So that's raised the prices of rents 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:38.360 for everyone. Not to mention, a lot of landlords were 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:43.760 having to make concessions to get apartments leased. They saw 0:04:43.800 --> 0:04:46.320 all of this demand as people were flooding back to 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.880 the city as an opportunity to recoup some of those 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.560 COVID nineteen losses, and that's when you saw these immense 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:54.680 rent hikes in twenty twenty two. 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:59.000 Under other circumstances, these higher earning residents might have come 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:01.559 back to the city and looking to purchase a home, 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.839 not rent one. But that's gotten harder too. 0:05:05.040 --> 0:05:08.400 People that might have already transitioned out of the rental 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.520 market are still in the rental market, and they have 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:13.440 more means to pay higher rents as well. 0:05:13.680 --> 0:05:15.000 There's just more people renting. 0:05:15.160 --> 0:05:17.720 It's about like two thirds of New York City's population 0:05:17.839 --> 0:05:20.719 is renting, and that's kept pressure on the rental market 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:21.560 as well. 0:05:21.600 --> 0:05:24.159 Right, it's more competition, especially from these higher earners. 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:24.520 Yeah. 0:05:24.560 --> 0:05:26.720 I think I read somewhere that the amount of millionaires 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:28.760 in general in the country who are renting is higher. 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:31.279 Yeah, the number of millionaire renters in New York City, 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.279 I think has doubled since twenty nineteen. 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.400 That kind of says it all. Yeah, the number of 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:40.560 New York City millionaires, renter or otherwise has reached record 0:05:40.680 --> 0:05:43.960 highs in recent years. Some estimates suggest that as of 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:47.160 twenty twenty three, one out of every twenty four New 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:50.599 York City residents is worth seven figures or more. But 0:05:50.680 --> 0:05:54.760 as wealthy New Yorkers become even wealthier, lower income residents 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.000 are being pushed farther into the outer boroughs or beyond, 0:05:59.040 --> 0:06:02.120 especially families kids who are more than twice as likely 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:04.240 to move out of the city than households without. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.000 Those people that are leaving the city are primarily from 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.480 the city's working class people making less than sixty thousand 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:13.640 dollars a year, because the cost of living in New 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:15.440 York has just become untenable for them. 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:17.960 So you're describing a really interesting dynamic, Like the amount 0:06:18.040 --> 0:06:21.800 of higher earners in the city is increasing, the amount 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.640 of working class folks moving out of the city is increasing. Meanwhile, 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:30.280 rent is getting less affordable for everyone across that income spectrum. Yeah, 0:06:30.320 --> 0:06:32.720 including for renters like Shane. 0:06:32.839 --> 0:06:36.440 Before once fifty k you could have savings you can travel, 0:06:36.600 --> 0:06:39.359 you know, you could be comfortable in New York. And 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.400 now I feel like we're all just penny pinsion, penny pension. 0:06:42.839 --> 0:06:45.400 And so when other folks from other different cities and 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:48.280 states listen to us complain about who would show out 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:49.800 one hundred and fifty K, and I'm like, yeah, live 0:06:49.800 --> 0:06:52.279 in New York brouh. 0:06:52.600 --> 0:06:55.599 One of the fundamental issues driving rents higher is a 0:06:55.720 --> 0:07:00.279 nationwide housing shortage, a shortage that's especially potent in New York. 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:03.840 Between twenty ten and twenty twenty three, New York City 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.640 added nearly nine hundred thousand jobs, but just under three 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:11.560 hundred thousand new homes. That means more New Yorkers are 0:07:11.640 --> 0:07:14.800 vying for a limited number of units, and Paulina says 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:18.280 that economics play a big role in swaying what kinds 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:19.600 of homes are being built. 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:22.840 The developer community in New York City points to the 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:24.520 macro economic conditions. 0:07:24.640 --> 0:07:26.960 Right, there is very little land in New York City. 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:30.440 Construction and labor costs have gone up along with inflation, 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.520 and they can't get the financing or the funds together 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.840 to build in the first place. If they're not building 0:07:36.920 --> 0:07:40.200 housing that's more expensive, right, it's what they say pencils 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:40.960 out for them. 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:44.840 One example is Long Island City, a neighborhood in northwest 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.000 Queens that's seen a lot of development attention over the 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.600 last few years. From twenty twenty to twenty twenty four, 0:07:51.920 --> 0:07:55.240 nearly seventy two hundred net new apartment units were added, 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.000 the majority of them in high rises with elevators. 0:07:59.400 --> 0:08:01.720 We talked to a resident who had moved there in 0:08:01.800 --> 0:08:04.800 nineteen eighty nine. She spent about four hundred dollars for 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:08.280 a two bedroom and a walk up and. 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:09.200 How times have changed. 0:08:09.320 --> 0:08:10.119 Times have changed. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:12.440 If you've been to Long Island City, now you get 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.640 off at Court Square, there's a sweet green, there's these tall, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:18.960 luxury high rise buildings, and that's driven up the rent 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:19.680 quite a bit. 0:08:20.280 --> 0:08:22.840 New developments now make up nearly a third of the 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.920 rental market in that part of Queen's and median rent 0:08:25.920 --> 0:08:28.760 in those buildings is six hundred and twenty five dollars 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:30.880 higher a month than a typical apartment. 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:34.000 It's just an example of how these developments can continue 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.560 to drive at prices and also attract a new type 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:37.120 of resident. 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:41.640 Emily Eisner, the chief economist at the Fiscal Policy Institute, 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:45.960 says the city's constrained housing supply plus its growing supply 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:51.120 of high earners are exacerbating the housing crisis. From individual 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:55.400 property owners to larger management companies. Landlord's take into account 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.360 a variety of factors when they set rent, but Emily 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.400 says some end up setting them so high in part 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:04.199 because there are enough New Yorkers who are willing to pay. 0:09:04.480 --> 0:09:07.480 The landlord can potentially charge you know, three thousand dollars 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.080 a month, let's say for a one bedroom, and that's 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.240 going to push out the like, you know, family with 0:09:12.280 --> 0:09:14.880 a young kid that makes I don't know, let's say 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:17.480 combined two hundred thousand dollars a year and has to 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.520 pay for childcare because there is demand for the unit 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.920 coming from someone who has fewer overall expenses and a 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:24.880 high enough income to. 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:29.319 Pay Paulina How unique is New York here though? How 0:09:29.320 --> 0:09:32.280 have other cities rental landscapes changed in the last few years. 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:34.560 Have they seen a similar sort of bounce back of 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:35.679 pandemic rents? 0:09:35.760 --> 0:09:40.080 You know, these boom towns like Austin or even like 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:43.840 in Florida where people moved during the pandemic, their rent 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:46.800 price is soared in twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:47.199 but have. 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:48.480 Since started to fall. 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:50.760 And that's true like across the Midwest and the Sun 0:09:50.760 --> 0:09:54.680 Belt where people moved to in San Francisco, housing costs 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:57.880 dropped and haven't recovered as much. So New York City 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:01.720 is pretty unique in how rents have continued to rise 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.480 and actually, for like most of the months this year, 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:08.360 Manhattan run prices have continued to hit a record high 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:11.720 in the summer four seven hundred dollars a month, which 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:13.400 is pretty crazy. 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:18.079 With housing costs this high, New Yorkers are looking for solutions. 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:20.880 After the break. 0:10:21.080 --> 0:10:23.600 How the issue has reshaped the race for New York 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.480 City Mayor and the proposals on the table to make 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:39.760 rent more affordable across the board. In November, New Yorkers 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.400 will head to the polls to vote in the mayoral election. 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.760 The race has captured national attention after the upstart Democratic 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:51.600 Socialist State Assembly member Zoron Mondani dominated the Democratic primary 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:55.200 in June. Meeting former New York Governor Andrew Poma. 0:10:55.240 --> 0:11:01.280 Today, eight months after launching this campaign with the vision 0:11:01.440 --> 0:11:07.280 of a city that every New Yorker could afford, we 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:07.760 have won. 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:12.680 Wow, and with just a month to go, until the 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.719 general poles show Mom Donnie leading by around twenty points. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:21.000 Bloomberg Real Estate reporter Paulina Cacerro says that one reason 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:25.320 Mom Donnie's message is resonating is because housing affordability issues 0:11:25.360 --> 0:11:28.320 are at the top of voters' priority lists, and they're 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.439 also central to Mom Donnie's campaign. 0:11:31.559 --> 0:11:32.559 We saw that. 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:35.160 A lot of the folks that voted for Mom Donnie 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.840 were like middle class and higher earners in the city 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:42.160 and people that also tended to rent. So if you 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.880 take a look at Greenpoint, which is this neighborhood in 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:49.920 North Brooklyn that was once known for its industrial roots 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:53.840 and kind of Polish immigrant community, saw a flood of 0:11:53.840 --> 0:11:57.120 white colored workers in the past couple years, and rents 0:11:57.200 --> 0:11:59.880 jumped fifty percent from twenty twenty to twenty twenty four, 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.560 and roughly seventy two percent of Democratic voters in the 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.440 area voted for Mom Donnie. Other in demand neighborhoods where 0:12:08.440 --> 0:12:12.000 rents have risen quite a bit also overwhelmingly voted for 0:12:12.080 --> 0:12:16.280 Mom Donnie, including Soho, Brooklyn Heights, and Long Island City. 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:20.640 So you can see how this rent affordability question has swayed. 0:12:21.040 --> 0:12:23.880 You know, a lot of renters and renters in affluent areas. 0:12:24.640 --> 0:12:28.640 Mom Donnie's proposals include constructing two hundred thousand new affordable 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:32.160 units over the next ten years and freezing rent increases 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.920 on all rent stabilized apartments. Those are units that have 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:38.320 limits on how much the rent can increase every year, 0:12:38.440 --> 0:12:41.720 which are set by the city's rent Guidelines Board. Here's 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:44.800 Mom Donnie talking about his policy proposals on her sisters 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:46.160 show odd Lots in May. 0:12:46.360 --> 0:12:49.200 In tandem, I am both a candidate who believes we 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.679 need to freeze the rent for rent stabilized tenants, and 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.560 one who believes that we need to end the requirement 0:12:54.600 --> 0:12:57.360 to build parking lots when reconstruct housing, who believes we 0:12:57.400 --> 0:13:00.320 need to increase densitery around mass transit hubs. We need 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:03.319 to up zone wealthier neighborhoods that have historically not contributed 0:13:03.360 --> 0:13:04.480 to affordable housing production. 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.560 Of course, not everyone is lucky enough to find a 0:13:07.600 --> 0:13:10.760 rent stabilized apartment that would be affected by a potential 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:14.120 rent freeze that Mom Donnie is proposing. So what explains 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:16.840 why these policies have resonated with such a broad coalition 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:18.640 that includes higher earners. 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:22.640 I think most people know that the rent freeze policy 0:13:22.679 --> 0:13:25.480 would only apply to the New York citi's about one 0:13:25.520 --> 0:13:29.160 million rent stabilized units, but even then, I think it's 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.120 created this kind of solidarity among renters. 0:13:33.280 --> 0:13:36.760 Other candidates have put forth their own housing agendas, albeit 0:13:36.840 --> 0:13:40.760 ones that have gotten less traction. Quomo says he'll prioritize 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:45.760 quote aggressive affordable housing development, while Republican candidate Kurtis Leiwa 0:13:45.800 --> 0:13:49.839 has centered the needs of small landlords. The city's current mayor, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.719 Eric Adams, has dropped out of the race, but had 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:55.960 been highlighting his role in passing a citywide zoning overhaul 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.080 called City of Yes, a plan that's designed to allow 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:02.240 more development in more places and supposed to unlock an 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.800 estimated eighty thousand units of housing over fifteen years. 0:14:06.120 --> 0:14:08.559 We see that as a really good start, but not enough. 0:14:09.040 --> 0:14:12.080 That's Emily Eisner, again, the chief economist at the Fiscal 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:13.160 Policy Institute. 0:14:13.200 --> 0:14:15.679 The city needs something on the order of five hundred 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:18.080 thousand more units over the next ten years, and I 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:21.560 want to be clear that that includes both market rate 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:23.760 housing and affordable housing. 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:28.440 Up Zonings and incentives that push developers to build affordable 0:14:28.520 --> 0:14:31.920 units can spur some of that growth, But Emily says 0:14:31.960 --> 0:14:34.760 there also need to be efforts to preserve the affordable 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:36.600 housing that already exists. 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:40.200 Sometimes the affordable housing sort of either leaves the affordability 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:42.840 zone and goes into market rate, or some of the 0:14:42.840 --> 0:14:45.120 buildings are sort of going to disrepair. So we need 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.880 to see various efforts to sort of keep those housing 0:14:47.960 --> 0:14:50.200 units livable and also keep them affordable. 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.440 And Emily also pointed to policies designed to keep tenants 0:14:54.520 --> 0:14:58.880 in those affordable units, policies like eviction protections that she'd 0:14:58.920 --> 0:15:04.400 advocate for expand to cover more renters. As for Shaney, 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:07.600 she's starting to feel like the grind to find housing 0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:10.240 in New York that meets her needs and fits her 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:12.360 budget might not be worth it anymore. 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:14.440 She's had a lot of friends who moved to the 0:15:14.440 --> 0:15:18.280 Sunbelt region North Carolina, South Carolina. As a native New Yorker, 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:20.520 it's not something that she thought she would ever have 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:21.520 to entertain. 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:23.720 My life in a city has been amazing. I've been 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:26.920 able to carry a single household for over a decade 0:15:27.040 --> 0:15:29.040 in New York City by myself. I think New York 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.760 has actually brought me more opportunities than I would have 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:34.240 had if I had stayed at Pittsburgh for college. The 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:36.480 only difference is that I would have rather been more 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:39.440 of a homeowner now at this age. But New York 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:41.920 is kind of like stopping you from a little bit. 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:45.400 It's just not a sustainable place. She can't have the 0:15:45.480 --> 0:15:48.400 life that she wants to live, even though she, for 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.880 all intents and purposes, like made it cheap. She did 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.000 everything that she thought she was supposed to do. 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:55.840 The city is a good grip on you, but it 0:15:55.880 --> 0:15:58.920 has caused me to like look long term future, like 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:01.160 what would life be like at other cities where I 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:02.440 can afford a home. 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.280 This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.160 To get more from The Big Take and unlimited access 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:17.960 to all of Bloomberg dot com, subscribe today at Bloomberg 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:21.760 dot com slash podcast offer. If you liked this episode, 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:24.240 make sure to follow and review The Big Take wherever 0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:26.960 you listen to podcasts. It helps people find the show. 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.080 Thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.