Photo: Flickr

In New York City, the average income and the average rent seem to have both just flown in from very different planets. They have no idea how to communicate with one another.

This is what an affordable housing crisis looks like, part two: Streeteasy has just relased its annual report on “The State of New York City Rent Affordability” (lol). Its most simple measure is to compare the median New York City income with the median New York City rent. How much of its income does the median New York City household spend in order to rent the median apartment?

In 2015: 60% (INSANE)
In 2016: 65% (EVEN MORE INSANE)

The average New York City household would need to spend two-thirds of its income to rent the average New York City apartment. Not tenable.

If you are one of the millions of average people who work in New York City, you can move far away and endure a long commute; you can try to find a spot in public housing; you can try to find a spot in other subsidized housing; you can live in grinding poverty because you spend so much of your income on rent; or you can leave New York City. If too many people leave New York City, New York City doesn’t work.

Besides “build more housing” and “tax the rich,” anyone got any great ideas here? Shit is getting crazy.