Two art districts in Queens
rank in report among the
top 10 most affordable in the
nation – but are they?
BY MARK HALLUM
A real estate organization
is calling into question
the affordability of cul-tural
districts after they
found that residents of arts districts
pay 176 percent more on average
than people who live in other parts
of their city — making arts districts
largely unaffordable for artists them-selves.
But the rent-to-income ratio for
creative types on a budget is relative-ly
sweeter in two sections of Queens,
ranking among the top districts in the
nation for affordability in relation to
the income of the average artist, Yardi
Matrix claimed in its sister publica-tion
RentCafe.
The Kaufman Arts District in Asto-ria
and Downtown Jamaica will both
cost an artist making $81,510 per
year less than 30 percent of their
income with the former falling into
place at 29 percent and the latter
taking about 27 percent of an art-ist’s
income.
The data compiled from U.S. De-partment
of Labor statistics pertains
16 MARCH 2019 I LIC COURIER I www.qns.com
to those living in apartment com-plexes
with more than 50 units within
a half-mile radius of the center of an
art district.
But the wider scope of the study
found that if an artist is living in a
cultural district, they may be paying
an average of around $382 more
on a monthly basis than any other
part of the city where they could be
living, a 176 percent increase above
normal rates.
Yardi Matrix claims that art districts
have become so popular over the
years that they in fact have grown
too expensive for artists themselves,
with Houston’s Museum District mak-ing
up one of the most prominent
examples of this at 176 percent of
the citywide average and Seattle’s
Capitol Hill arts district costing the
least amount at only a 2 percent
rent-to-income ratio.
According to the Department of
Housing and Urban Development,
a household that qualifies at “rent-burdened”
is one which sends over
30 percent of income to the landlord,
making most cultural districts no
country for starving artists.
Real Estate
Angy Altamirano
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