Finding an apartment in New York City can be a difficult and expensive challenge, whether you are moving out on your own for the first time or you're looking to buy a home of your own. Here are some key facts for NYC renters to keep in mind as they navigate finding a new home.

Quick facts on renting and homes in NYC

Do more people rent or own in NYC?

Of the 3,142,405 occupied housing units in New York City, a little over two-thirds are rented and just one-third are owned by the people who live in them.

This is a stark contrast with the U.S. as a whole, where 63.8% of homes are occupied by the people who own them.

Rented homes in New York City tend to have slightly fewer people living in them than owner-occupied homes. The average rental unit has 2.56 occupants, while an average owner-occupied unit has 2.9.

Costs of renting vs. owning

In New York City, homeowners tend to spend substantially more per month on their total costs of housing than renters do. The median monthly cost of homeownership (with a mortgage) in New York is $2,588. And 36% of homeowners spend more than $3,000 per month on housing.

Meanwhile, the typical monthly rent in NYC is only $1,340, and 28% of New York renters spend less than $1,000 per month.

However, the discrepancy in housing expenses evens out considerably when looking at total percentage of housing costs. In fact, renters tend to spend a slightly higher proportion of their overall income on their homes. While both owners and renters in NYC commonly spent more than 35% of their income on housing, renters did so more frequently (45% versus 38%).

Conversely, renters are less likely to spend under 20% of their household income on housing than homeowners are: Only 24% of renters meet that threshold, while 33% of homeowners do.

Note that in all cases, "homeowners" only describes homes with an active mortgage.

Home size in NYC by bedroom

The size of homes in New York City varies considerably, but it tends to be on the smaller side compared to the national average. Out of the 3.45 million homes in the city, 70.5% have two bedrooms or fewer. And 8.1% of New York City's homes are studios (one-room apartments), which are nearly four times more common in New York City than throughout the U.S. as a whole.

Homes by number of bedrooms in New York City

Building size in NYC

While individual homes in New York may be smaller than homes throughout the country, the buildings themselves are anything but. Most New Yorkers live in large buildings: Nearly half of all homes are contained in buildings of 20 units or more.

In fact, New York City accounts for about 15% of all apartment buildings that have 20 or more units in the entire country. In the rest of the U.S., 61.8% of all homes are detached single-family structures. An average New Yorker is about three times more likely to live in a multifamily building than a typical American.

Number of units in NYC buildings and homes

Value of NYC homes

New York City is famously home to some of the most expensive real estate in the country, but there's a surprising range of home values in the city. Out of the 1,025,332 owner-occupied homes in the city, about 52,000 homes are valued at less than $100,000. More homes are worth less than $300,000 (184,246) than homes worth more than $1 million (162,007).

That doesn't mean housing in NYC isn't expensive, however; the median home price of $538,700 is nearly triple the national median price of $193,500.

Methodology

The data in this report is based on the U.S. Census' Annual Community Survey (ACS). The ACS' margin of error is +/-0.2% or less for all figures.

In all cases, the study is limited to the five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx and Staten Island.