It's a disaster. No single factor affects people's decisions as much as the rent in this city; lives here revolve around it, especially if you're only making so-so money. I think about how different life here would be if everyone's rent was only, let's say, 10% of their income (jobs, hobbies, social lives, etc.)

The rental increase treadmill keeps turning faster and faster, and the need to keep moving neighborhoods every few years is not a picnic.

I was born in Brooklyn and have lived in NYC my whole life, and the rental situation just gets worse every year. Unless and until we start dealing with the issue seriously, it's just going to keep eating more and more of people's incomes. I wrote a post on this a while ago summarizing the issue:

https://medium.com/@spencer_th0mas/fixing-the-nyc-rent-crisi...

My rental history looks like this:

1995: 300/month sublet (Kensington)

1997: 625/month 1BR walkup (Brighton Beach)

1999: 675/month

2000: 1450/month 1BR walkup (Upper East Side)

2001: Above raised to 1650, moved

2002: 1125/month studio (Yorksvillle)

2009: 1175/month studio (Yorksville) - landlord wanted the apartment for a relative, had to move

2010: 1750 1BR walkup (Lower East Side)

2011: 1800

2012: 1850

2013: 1900

2014: 1950

2015: 2000

2016: 2180

All the old apartments I lived in are now at least 400-500+ more. It's out of control. I'm probably heading back to south BK when my lease is up; at least studios under 1400 still exist there.