Urban Prospect: The Affordable City

A tabulation of listings from a recent edition of the New York Times shows that the average asking rent for Manhattan apartments is over $2,460.

It is not only Manhattan rentals that give New York a reputation for high housing costs. According to the National Association of Realtors, the median price of existing homes sold in the metropolitan area during 1996 was $174,500, nearly 50 percent above the national average.