First paycheck for 2013 = lower rent?

Uh not 50%. 6.2% versus 4.2%. For SS. Medicare unchanged. Those who will. See more than this make over $250,000 and will only see the increase on SS ABOVE $250k. So no...

Dear Landlord: My paycheck has more money withhold from it than when I signed my lease. Please lower my rent accordingly. Yours Truly, Your Tenant.

Dear Tenant: Enclosed please find your monthly rent invoice. Sorry to hear about your paycheck. Yours Truly, Your Landlord.

You are correct, 6.2% is a 47.619% increase over 4.2%, not a 50.000% increase. Thanks for keeping me honest.

Lowery, the question very clearly talked about renters looking at their renewals more clearly, not the scenario you described.

Greensdale:

Those increases will affect lower and middle income tenants far more than
the ones renting Manhattan luxury apartments

The answer is "no"

But I thought the tax increases are supposed to be across-the-board. Doesn't a rising tide lift all boats?

I agree with alanhart, this only impacts Millionaires and Billionaires.

If a payroll tax cut expiration is enough to push your rental into the "unaffordable" range, you really could not afford that apartment in the first place.

Re: The answer is "no"

Re: If a payroll tax cut expiration is enough to push your rental into the "unaffordable" range, you really could not afford that apartment in the first place.

Really? Talk about removed from reality. Declining incomes have NO impact on housing prices? Matt, do have have ANY clue as to the HUGE number of twenty and thirty something professionals in Manhattan who are just sqeaking by in studios or doubled or tripled up in shares? Or the numbers of working class people watching every dollar in this town? To these people a DECLINE in net income of even $100 a month can be a very big deal. Remember that your middle class snob standards up in Chateau Pompous have zero relationship to the way most renters live in this city. Get off Grindr and get a clue.

Sorry, but I stand by my comments. If a $100 shortfall is enough to throw you into a crisis over your rent check, you're WAY overbudgeted.

Actually, I think the extra 5% on dividends/capital gains Obamacare surcharge of 3.8% plus the extra 2% for SS might make it harder for those who make say $400k to $1MM too. That's an extra 2% up to $112k than an extra 8.8% on investment income. For those over a MILLION maybe not but for those types who like to complain that $250k is barely middle class in Manhattan, we are talking $1k a month in new taxes or more for some...

A lot of young people, out of college or graduate school, intentionally stretch to live in good areas of Manhattan, the extra payroll taxes are doing them no favor.
Also it is true that young people's expectations have risen on terms of quality.

"A lot of young people, out of college or graduate school, intentionally stretch to live in good areas of Manhattan, the extra payroll taxes are doing them no favor."

Whose fault is that?

"Also it is true that young people's expectations have risen on terms of quality."

Maybe now is a good time for them to re-calibrate their expectations back down to a more realistic level.

New York City has always attracted strivers. That is the whole point. This is not Pittsburgh and we shouldn't want it to be.

Who said anything about Pittsburgh?

I'm talking about NEW YORKERS living within their means.

"Striving" is fine. Overextending yourself financially is not.

People "overextend" on their rentals and life on NYC because they anticipate earning more and working toward that. If you have no upward trajectory in your life and career / earning power, then of course I get your point.

"People "overextend" on their rentals and life on NYC because they anticipate earning more and working toward that."

Well then that's just a stupid risk.

"If you have no upward trajectory in your life and career / earning power, then of course I get your point."

Luckily, I've always had an upward trajectory. But of course, I also didn't overextend myself and live beyond my means in the process -- thus putting myself in the position of missing the rent payment because my taxes went up by 0.2%.

It's good that you didn't "overextend" given the 10x difference between 0.2% and the actual change of 2.0%.

I was exaggerating, obviously. Duh.

You were exaggerating about overextending?
Ok I get it, but keep in mind the second poster on this thread was seeking precision.

Oh for fuck's sake. Seriously. The whole point is that if you need to be SO precise with your finances you're NOT BUDGETING PROPERLY.

Seems like you easily get frustrated when talking about money and housing budgets.

No I get easily frustrated with small-minded and wrong-headed people.

I feel your deeply-seated pain on this obviously personal issue.

Oy.

greens -- I think the answer to your original question is yes, due to lower net income, people may be reevaluating their leases and as a result moving out of now unaffordable apartments in prime areas to much cheaper and less desirable areas where they can actually afford the rent. Places like, umm, let's say, Washington Heights for example.

This problem could apply to Washington Heights as well. There was an article in Times Real Estate about a Bronx developer and landlord who said people are moving there from WH.

Obama care sure is wonderful!

I feel more sorry for people who don't have health insurance than I do for people making $400k a year who have to pay higher investment taxes.

jason: you'll feel even more sorry for them when they lose their part job after the economy goes into the toilet!

So if everyone in a specific income category moves rather than renews because of the increase in tax withholdings due to Obamacare surcharge and payroll holiday expiry, etc., then doesn't that mean they'll be competing with each other at the same time for the same overflow housing sub-sub-submarket? I can see how it could be the last straw for someone as they make decisions on where and how to live, but I don't see it making it any more difficult for landlords. The spilling over from WH to the Bronx someone mentioned is to be expected because there is always a mob of 20-and-30-somethings looking for something a little less expensive, then saturating the places they congregate in, driving those rents up, causing their younger siblings to run out to the next neighborhood out, in search of the great deal they heard their older siblings had, but that they couldn't find.

>I feel more sorry for people who don't have health insurance than I do for people making $400k a year who have to pay higher investment taxes.

Imagine not having health insurance, and having Jason the Retard pity you.

"jason: you'll feel even more sorry for them when they lose their part job after the economy goes into the toilet!"

Yes, because every other country with Universal healthcare (which is EVERY other OECD nation has a shitty economy. Oh wait, no, several have and are doing better than us, and have been for over a decade.

http://www.heritage.org/index/ranking

http://www.economist.com/news/economic-and-financial-indicators/21569409-output-prices-and-jobs%20

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/01/daily-chart-7

Its like people such as yourself have NO IDEA what goes outside the US.

Ideally you would be more respectful of our country.

The 2% SS Tax hike on someone living "paycheck to paycheck" on 75K gross W2 = about $100 per month hit to your take home. When you've only got a few hundred bucks a month in disposable income, that $100 matters. Combine that with 3-4% "real" inflation and stagnating salaries, and it's looking bleaker and bleaker for those trying to cut it in NYC at such income levels.

There are a lot of young educated professionals at that strata. And they are going to feel it. I think anyone who argues otherwise is disconnected from reality.

Prices are driven by supply and demand. Will this translate to lower rents? Not necessarily. The breakdown of the demand can shift. People can move. Double up. Foreign buyers can continue their colonization. These things can keep prices high, to a point.

I worry about the overall makeup and buying power of the NYC populus eroding too quickly, though.

So basically, I have no clue.

My two cents is that every renter who is not stabilized with a set increase every year SHOULD know that landlord rent increases are negotiable. I have friends who have told me their rents went up (insert $100-250) per month and I tell them to call their landlord and figure out somewhere in between. Everyone knows their rent will go up, so I don't think the payroll increase will have any change in outcome. Everyone should be negotiating rental increases on their own regardless on increased taxes. :)

Actually, EVERYTHING is negotiable, when you come right down to it.

Matt, seriously, get off Grindr. ;)

Why, West34? Are you hoping I'll run into you on "Mister"?

I disagree with lowery and agree with dnazinit and statik.