Brooklyn’s median rent now just $210 less than Manhattan’s

Remember when you moved to Brooklyn because it was cheap? Pepperidge Farm remembers. They also remember when a massive rezoning, a push for luxury housing above all else and a laissez-faire attitude towards rent regulation and tenant protection resulted in the ridiculous news item that Brooklyn’s median rent, at $2,890/month, is just $210 cheaper than Manhattan’s median rent of $3,100/month. Hey, we hear Jersey City is really nice. You move first though.

The median rent in Brooklyn is up $300/month from last February, according to a new report from Douglas Elliman, when it was also impossibly high. Even with studios, one-bedrooms and three-bedrooms dropping in price compared to last month, the trending increase is being carried by two-bedrooms jumping up to $3,155/month. If you do want a studio and a space of your own, you should either work for or rob a bank, as those on average now cost $2,260/month. Which considering that less than two years ago we were talking about how a median price of $1,852/month for a studio was expensive, is just depressing.

The good news, if there’s good news to be found here, is that Brooklyn and Manhattan are moving so close to crossing the streams because Manhattan’s rent keeps falling, which has been compared to the rent from a year ago for six months. The bad news is that this is because more and more rich people want to live in Brooklyn.

Clearly though, we need a great reshuffling, now that Brooklyn is basically Manhattan. So get out your notepad, here it is: Manhattan is the new Hong Kong. Brooklyn is the new Manhattan. Queens is the new Brooklyn. And let’s say that ah, Long Beach, is the new Queens. What? They’ve got spiking real estate prices and ugly new real estate developments.