[silence] [music]
Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For our last 15 minutes today with only a few days left in July, we'll open up the phones now to those of you who are moving this season. August 1st is one of the biggest moving days of the year. Where are you moving to and why? 212-433-WNYC, that's the simple question. Where are you moving to anytime this summer? It doesn't have to be this week and why? 212-433-9692.
Remember we talked last week about finding stuff around the city and getting rid of things you no longer need in your home. That it's a big season for that because so many people move around now. Today, we're going to follow up and just ask, where are you going? Where are you moving to? What can we learn about our city, our region, our country, this moment in the pandemic or inflation or anything else based on where you have decided to move to? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.
Just tell us where you're moving this summer. According to a new StreetEasy report from today, 44% of the available units in Manhattan right now come from tenants priced out of apartments they rented back in 2020 and 2021. That's forced relocation among people who can't afford just to stay where they are. Citywide, over 22,000 apartments are empty because of rent hikes, StreetEasy says. Anyone out there finally packing up and getting out of the city because you can no longer afford the rent?
How much did your rent go up and then what do you do? Where do you go? Where you can presumably make the same amount of money if you're working but have less rent. 212-433- WNYC, 212-433-9692, or tweet at Brian Lehrer. People with school-age children know all too well. Summer is the best time to move if you must. Where are you going and why, where your kids are going to start a new school year and a new place rather than move in the middle of the year. Are you seeking better schools?
Are you seeking a backyard and more access to nature if you're leaving the city. By the way, how did you break it to the kids? Moving at all? A lot of kids don't take moving very well. They're being wrenched away from the friends that they've known and having to start all over. Anxiety-producing, if anything is for a kid. 212-433-WNYC.
Has anyone moved back into New York City from anywhere else, from anywhere else in our region, or anywhere else further away this summer? Maybe your remote job has become in-person again so you've had to scramble to find a place in the city, or maybe you moved out to the city for greener pastures and you decided you didn't like it so much with all that leafblower noise.
Did you have a tough time finding a place in the suburbs? Maybe you even managed to get back into your old neighborhood in the city. How did you do it? Those are a few possible scenarios. By the way, that StreetEasy report found that a lot of people are moving to Queens in particular. According to the report, the number of available units in Queens fell 9% to about 9,000 from the previous quarter and median asking rent rose to 2,600 a month, a 13% jump from the end of the first quarter.
In other words, there are fewer vacancies in Queens and the rent is going up because more people are trying to live there. Anyone moving to Queens for the first time or where are you moving this summer and why and what can we learn from your move? Laura in San Francisco, Hi Laura. You're on WNYC.
Laura: Good morning, Brian.
Brian Lehrer: Did you just move to San Francisco or are you moving from San Francisco?
Laura: No, we just moved to San Francisco from the New York area and so I got here about a week ago.
Brian Lehrer: What caused your move?
Laura: My husband, he had an opportunity for a job promotion and this was right after the pandemic. We thought we'd been in the house for a while and we're like, let's have a change. We haven't seen much on the west coast and so we thought we would just give it a try, but the good news is I still have my Alexa, so I can still tune in.
Brian Lehrer: [chuckles] I'm glad. First impressions of San Francisco?
Laura: It's a vibrant city. It's cold out here in July [laughs] and I know that the rest of the nation is going through a heat wave, so I should be happy, but I'm used to warmer weather and I'm missing it.
Brian Lehrer: I think they say it's one of the things that Mark Twain never actually said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."
Laura: Exactly.
Brian Lehrer: Laura, thank you very much. Enjoy it out there. Judy in Merrick, you're on WNYC. Hi, Judy.
Judy: Hi, this is Judy. Hi. Thank you for taking my call. Mine's a little unusual situation. I don't know. Maybe it's not. My 32-year-old son lives with me in Merrick. He's wonderful. I love him. He fixes everything. He maintains the house. We just should not be living under the same roof. I'm democratic. He's Republican. Luckily, I came into a little money and I'm looking for like a summer home out east on the North Fork where I could go just to get away. [laughs] That's my story.
Brian Lehrer: In other words, your 32-year-old son who won't leave home, he's going to get the house in Merrick.
Judy: Yes. He's done a lot of work on it. He's in construction. He just hasn't met the right person, so he hasn't moved out and we get along. We're really, really good, except I'm democratic and he's conservative so we don't talk often a lot.
Brian Lehrer: Fight about politics. Wow. Breaking up the otherwise loving generations. It sounds like over left and right politics, Judy, good luck on the North Fork or wherever that second home turns out to be. Lisa on the Lower East Side. Hi, Lisa. You're on WNYC.
Lisa: Hi, Brian. I've lived on the Lower East Side for about 30 years. We've been on the waiting list for Westbeth for a long time and we finally got an apartment there.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, the artist housing downtown. Is that rent-stabilized?
Lisa: Yes. In the West Village. It is rent-stabilized. It's amazing.
Brian Lehrer: Aren't you lucky?
Lisa: It faces the Hudson River.
Brian Lehrer: How'd you get in?
Lisa: Well, we've been on the waiting list for a really long time and we didn't really think about it that much because we knew that it was a long shot, but one day they contacted us and said that we're moved up in the waiting list. Then we kept getting emails from them letting us know of our status and things started looking really good and all of a sudden we were offered an apartment.
Brian Lehrer: I once put myself on the waiting list for a Penn South in Chelsea, another rent-related building. I was told that I was number 400 or something on the waiting list. I forgot about it for a couple of years and then I looked again because you can look it up. I saw, well, I went from number 400 to like number 500. I said, wait, it's not supposed to go like that, but anyway, congratulations on getting into Westbeth. Alex on Staten Island. You're on WNYC. Hi, Alex.
Alex: Hi, Brian. [laughs] It's really exciting to talk to you. I listen to your show all the time.
Brian Lehrer: I'm glad you're on. Where are you moving to?
Alex: I don't know yet actually. I wasn't planning on moving. I got a rent-stabilized apartment in February that I was intending to stay in for a while, but a really bad vermin infestation in that building that the landlords were not willing to deal with. I had to leave and I moved out to Staten Island where I'm staying in a really nice old Victorian house on a month-to-month basis, but it's recently become untenable here as well.
Unfortunately, after being in New York since 2009, this place I've always wanted to live and I really love living. I'm confronting maybe it just doesn't work, maybe I need to move somewhere else.
Brian Lehrer: What a terrible story and series of unfortunate events, it sounds like. Did you move to New York in 2009 from some other part of the country?
Alex: I did. I moved here right after college to go to law school and have been here ever since.
Brian Lehrer: Oh, I hate to. Now that you've been a first-time caller here that you might be a refugee from New York, but good luck, whatever happens. Alex, thank you for checking in. Martha in Bushwick, you're on WNYC. Hi, Martha.
Martha: Hi, Brian. How's it going?
Brian Lehrer: Good. Looks like you're trying to move next month. Do I see that right?
Martha: Yes. I've been keeping my eye out for a few months now, even though I probably won't find my place until like a week before I have to move in because it seems like that's how usually things shake out, or at least that's been my experience. I work in Bushwick and my partner lives in Ridgewood, so I'm looking for something around there, but I've just seen prices go up and up and it's disheartening. [laughs] Was walking to work today and there was really loud construction and just like the last caller, I was starting to feel a little bit like, "Boy is it worth it?" [laughs] [crosstalk] I try to stay positive.
Brian Lehrer: If you can afford Ridgewood, do you have your eye on another neighborhood yet or haven't you gotten to that point?
Martha: I'm dead set on moving to Ridgewood I think. I grew up in Chicago and I really feel at home there. I think it reminds me a lot of something about the brick and the architecture and the vibe. I really love it and I'm moving from Crown Heights. It's a great neighborhood. It's not super convenient for work, but- [crosstalk]
Brian Lehrer: Good luck. I hope you and your partner find something. Martha, thank you very much. All right, one more. I see we have on the board two people who are moving to Europe now. One to Austria and I don't know where Stephanie in Manhattan is moving to, but Stephanie because of the state of this country and we have 20 seconds for you.
Stephanie: Quickly, in the part state, the nation, I think we're going the wrong way towards Christian nationalism, scary, but also I'm a lifelong New Yorker, love it to death. The helicopter noise is also going to drive me out. The city's not doing anything about it. I can't have a helicopter barreling through my living room all the time.
Brian Lehrer: The helicopters and Christian nationalism driving Stephanie from Manhattan to an unnamed place in Europe. Thanks to all of you for your calls about where you're moving this summer.
Copyright © 2022 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.
New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.
