A shocking number of wealthy NYC renters live in stabilized units

Rich New Yorkers are scoring the city’s best rent deals.A new analysis by the Wall Street Journal of the city’s 2023 Housing and Vacancy Survey — the most recent data available — found that some of the sweetest deals in the five boroughs’ rent-stabilization program are landing in the laps of its wealthiest tenants, not its neediest.Right now, wealthy households make up about 10% of the entire rent-stabilized stock, according to a Citizens Budget Commission analysis of 2023 data.Of those, more than 86,700 households reported earning above $200,000 a year.High earners in the top 25% bracket who live in rent-stabilized apartments pay roughly $1,000 less per month than they would at market rate, a savings of 33%. Top earners in the 10% bracket do even better, pocketing $1,300 in monthly savings, a 36% discount.

Compare that to renters in the bottom three income brackets, who save closer to $300 a month, or between 15% and 22%.Part of the disparity comes down to geography.Wealthier tenants tend to cluster in pricier neighborhoods, where the gap between market rate and stabilized rent is naturally wider, even if the stabilized rate still comes with a hefty price tag.“You do have people paying $5,000, $6,000 or $8,000 for rent-stabilized apartments,” Allia Mohamed, CEO of the rental data firm Openigloo, told the Journal. The rest of the gap is baked into the system itself.

Rent stabilization in New York was never designed to check a tenant’s bank account.“I can’t imagine trying to do an income certification for like a million units,” Brad Greenburg, executive director of NYU’s Furman Center, added.“Administratively, it feels impossible.”Those well-off tenants are about to get an even better deal, courtesy of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s rent freeze, which kicks in this October.The borough breakdown shows just how uneven the savings really are.

In Manhattan, stabilized units go for about half of what market rate would charge.In The Bronx, that ...