Like millions of people before me, I arrived in New York City a few years ago fresh out of college with a single bag of clothes, a laughably low-paying job, and no place to live except for the couches that my friends were nice enough to offer up to me.
In hindsight, I probably should have done a bit of research before moving down to the city, because it turns out it’s kind of expensive to live there— like really, really expensive.
I spent the first couple of years successfully avoiding being killed while responding to Craigslist ads in sketchy areas while bouncing from apartment to apartment.
Thankfully, I finally reached a place in life where I could get approved for a place of my own, which allowed me to learn about the joys of paying a real estate agent more than a month’s rent for taking an hour to show you three places that no sane human being would want to live in if there was any other option.
As a result, I wasn’t exactly shocked to come across a study listing the most expensive zip codes to rent in across America that crowned Manhattan the place to be if you enjoy spending thousands of dollars a month on a couple hundred square feet of living space.
RENTCafé poured through the data to look at 130 different areas across the country and found the borough is home to over half of the top 50 priciest zip codes for renters, with the Battery Park area taking home the crown with an average monthly price tag of $5,657.
However, there are plenty of other places to avoid if you’re looking to save on rent (and don’t mind living in a place where a chain restaurant with kitschy things on the wall is one of the hottest nightlife destinations in your area).
With that said, some of those are absolute bargains when you compare them to the ten most expensive zip codes in America (and their approximate locations):
Brooklyn doesn’t seem so bad now.
