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New York City ZIP Code Affordability Report 2026

How far the owner-occupied home has separated from the median paycheck in every New York City ZIP code, why Brooklyn and not Manhattan is the least affordable borough, where the Bronx is rent-burdened as a whole, and the 9 ZIPs where a median income still buys in — computed from Census ACS data for 178 ZIP codes across the five boroughs.

By the NYC Zip Codes Data Team · Published 2026-09-21 · 178 ZIP codes · 8.5 million residents covered

In this report
  1. Key findings
  2. How this report was built
  3. The five boroughs
  4. Price-to-income by ZIP
  5. Rent burden
  6. Education, income and ownership
  7. Census ceilings and the co-op floor
  8. The value screen
  9. Limitations and citation
  10. FAQ

Key findings

How this report was built

Every figure is computed from the dataset behind the 183 ZIP code pages on this site: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 5-Year Estimates at the ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ZCTA) level for population, density, median household income, median home value (owner-occupied units), median gross rent, tenure, poverty rate, bachelor's-degree attainment and unemployment. 5 ZIP codes are excluded because the ACS reports no resident population, income or owner-occupied home value for them: 10037 (Manhattan), 10162 (Manhattan), 10279 (Manhattan), 11359 (Queens), 11430 (Queens), which are a PO Box ZIP, the Woolworth Building, JFK Airport, Fort Totten and a Harlem ZIP where almost all housing is rental or public. That leaves 178 ZIP codes covering 8.5 million residents, all five boroughs.

Price-to-income (PTI) is median home value divided by median household income. 3.0 is the long-run U.S. norm; the Demographia International Housing Affordability survey calls anything above 5.0 "severely unaffordable". In New York the numerator needs a caveat: ACS home value covers only owner-occupied units, and in most of the city those are condominiums and cooperative apartments, not houses. Where a ZIP's owners are mostly co-op shareholders (Co-op City, Parkchester, parts of Queens), the "home value" is a share price and the ratio collapses; where they are brownstone and condo owners in a ZIP of low-income renters (Harlem, Mott Haven, Bushwick), the ratio explodes. Both cases are real and both are flagged below. Because the ACS top-codes home value at $2,000,001 and income at $250,001, ratios for capped ZIPs are floors, marked with a plus sign. Rent-to-income (RTI) is annualized median gross rent divided by median household income; above 30% is "cost-burdened" and above 50% "severely cost-burdened" under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development definitions. Both are area-level indicators built from ZIP-level medians. Citywide and borough medians weight each ZIP equally. Correlations are Pearson r across the 173 ZIPs with at least 5,000 residents, and the named-ZIP rankings use the same floor. Sources, formulas and limitations are documented in full on the methodology page.

The five boroughs

Sorted by price-to-income, the boroughs split three ways. Staten Island (6.6) and Queens (7.9) are the house-owning boroughs: median owner-occupancy of 67% and 51%, median home values under $705,400, and rent burdens at or under the citywide median. Manhattan (8.6) and the Bronx (8.8) land within a fifth of a point of each other for opposite reasons: Manhattan's $1,044,800 median home is carried by the city's highest median income ($140,381) and a 78% bachelor's rate; the Bronx's $497,700 median home sits on the city's lowest income ($46,233), a 22% degree rate and a 27.9% median poverty rate. Brooklyn (11.8) is the outlier: home values have converged on Manhattan's ($990,650 vs $1,044,800) while incomes have not ($82,564 vs $140,381), and only 28% of households in the median Brooklyn ZIP own.

Rent tells a different story from price. The Bronx's median rent-to-income of 37.7% is the only borough figure over the 30% line, and it is over by a wide margin; 16 of the borough's 25 ZIPs are burdened. Brooklyn (28.0%), Queens (27.4%) and Manhattan (25.3%) cluster just under the line, and Staten Island (21.9%) is the only borough where the median ZIP's rent is comfortably affordable to the median ZIP's income.

BoroughZIPsResidentsMedian household incomeMedian home valueMedian PTIMedian rent-to-incomeOwner-occupiedBachelor's or higherPoverty rate
Staten Island12494,956$100,740$680,5006.621.9%67%36%11.1%
Queens602,317,298$90,044$705,4007.927.4%51%35%11.0%
Manhattan431,598,324$140,381$1,044,8008.625.3%24%78%12.6%
Bronx251,412,082$46,233$497,7008.837.7%14%22%27.9%
Brooklyn382,631,396$82,564$990,65011.828.0%28%39%18.4%

Price-to-income by ZIP: 35 above 12

The distribution is bunched at the expensive end: 63 ZIPs between 5 and 8, 72 between 8 and 12 and 35 above 12, against 6 between 3 and 5 and 2 at or under 3. The ratio is not measuring whether a household can buy the median home in its ZIP; for most New Yorkers it cannot, and most do not try. It is measuring how far the owned housing stock has separated from the people who live around it.

The top of the table is the clearest illustration. 10454 (Mott Haven and Port Morris) has the city's highest ratio at 32.9: a median owner-occupied home of $792,000, a median household income of $24,086 (the lowest in the city), 7% owner-occupancy and a 45% poverty rate. 10029 (East Harlem, 23.1), 10030 (Central Harlem, 21.2), 10453 (University Heights, 20.3) and 11219 (Borough Park, 19.5) follow. 9 of the 15 least affordable ZIPs have a median income under $50,000; in every one of them the owners are a small minority whose brownstones, condos and two-family houses are valued at Manhattan-adjacent prices while the renters around them earn Bronx incomes. Manhattan's prestige ZIPs do not appear here because their incomes are high enough to carry their prices: Tribeca and Battery Park City hit the $2,000,001 cap on incomes at the $250,001 cap, and the Upper East Side (10065, 9.1; 10075, 6.4) lands mid-table.

The bottom of the table needs the co-op caveat. 10475 (Co-op City) posts a ratio of 0.5 because its "median home value" of $33,200 is the price of a cooperative share in a limited-equity Mitchell-Lama development, not a market home. 10452 and 10468 in the west Bronx are the same story at $197,100 and $239,900. Setting those aside, the genuinely attainable ZIPs are 11109 (Hunters Point and Long Island City, 2.6, on a $204,885 income but only 19% owners), 10471 (Riverdale, 4.0, 59% owners), 11415 (Kew Gardens, 4.3), 11362 (Little Neck, 4.3, 75% owners) and the South Shore of Staten Island (10308 Great Kills, 5.2; 10307 Tottenville, 5.4).

The 15 least affordable ZIP codes by price-to-income (5,000+ residents)

ZIPBoroughMedian home valueMedian household incomePTIOwner-occupiedPoverty rate
10454Bronx$792,000$24,08632.97%45%
10029Manhattan$892,200$38,69523.17%31%
10030Manhattan$844,000$39,80221.214%36%
10453Bronx$674,800$33,18620.35%38%
11219Brooklyn$1,137,300$58,34719.525%33%
10460Bronx$662,800$36,30918.39%34%
10002Manhattan$827,800$48,38617.119%28%
11223Brooklyn$1,067,400$63,36816.836%21%
11213Brooklyn$1,094,700$65,12716.817%23%
10472Bronx$666,600$41,03916.216%34%
11233Brooklyn$990,400$62,41115.924%24%
11204Brooklyn$1,098,600$69,47915.834%22%
10459Bronx$582,000$38,00615.310%34%
10027Manhattan$899,600$59,58715.117%26%
11239Brooklyn$573,300$38,01515.19%25%

The 15 most attainable ZIP codes by price-to-income (5,000+ residents, co-op-priced ZIPs excluded)

ZIPBoroughMedian home valueMedian household incomePTIOwner-occupiedPoverty rate
11109Queens$525,300$204,8852.619%3%
10471Bronx$414,000$103,0464.059%6%
11415Queens$367,400$86,3944.344%10%
10001Manhattan$561,100$129,8524.324%15%
11362Queens$530,800$122,0904.375%5%
10280Manhattan$976,300$206,2994.734%4%
10463Bronx$387,600$74,9745.235%19%
10308Staten Island$656,400$125,8505.280%6%
11375Queens$552,400$105,9045.250%9%
11374Queens$473,300$90,6315.242%13%
10307Staten Island$801,300$147,1845.484%6%
10470Bronx$497,700$90,0465.543%11%
10017Manhattan$756,600$136,7055.532%10%
11413Queens$656,000$118,4405.574%6%
11411Queens$646,800$116,4585.685%7%

Rent burden: 55 ZIP codes past the 30% line

The median New York ZIP's rent of $1,886 a month takes 27.3% of median household income, under the 30% threshold but closer to it than any metro outside California. 55 of 177 ZIPs are over the line; 11 are above 40%; 10453 (University Heights, 51.3%) and 10454 (Mott Haven, 51.2%) are above 50%, the HUD definition of severely cost-burdened, at the ZIP-level median. 16 of the 55 burdened ZIPs are in the Bronx, 15 in Brooklyn, 12 in Manhattan, 12 in Queens and 0 on Staten Island.

The burdened ZIPs are not the ZIPs with the highest rents. Median rents in the top 12 run $1,028–$1,604, all below the citywide median of $1,886, against incomes of $24,086–$46,233. Rent burden and poverty move together at r = 0.80, the strongest relationship in this dataset: the ZIPs where rent takes the largest share of income are the ZIPs with the highest poverty rates, not the ZIPs with the most expensive apartments. Manhattan's highest rents ($3,501 in several Lower Manhattan ZIPs at the ACS $3,501 rent cap) produce rent-to-income ratios in the teens because the incomes beside them are five and six figures.

Highest rent-to-income ratios (5,000+ residents)

ZIPBoroughMedian rentMedian household incomeRent-to-incomePoverty rateOwner-occupied
10453Bronx$1,420$33,18651.3%38%5%
10454Bronx$1,028$24,08651.2%45%7%
10458Bronx$1,558$40,80045.8%31%4%
10460Bronx$1,323$36,30943.7%34%9%
10472Bronx$1,463$41,03942.8%34%16%
10459Bronx$1,325$38,00641.8%34%10%
10468Bronx$1,604$46,23341.6%28%8%
10452Bronx$1,419$41,28841.2%35%3%
10451Bronx$1,330$38,77041.2%33%14%
10456Bronx$1,174$34,95440.3%39%7%
10474Bronx$1,387$41,58640.0%29%10%
10457Bronx$1,382$42,68338.9%33%5%
10029Manhattan$1,247$38,69538.7%31%7%
10030Manhattan$1,282$39,80238.7%36%14%
10044Manhattan$3,327$103,34738.6%12%19%
10455Bronx$1,136$36,11537.7%37%9%
11212Brooklyn$1,294$41,35537.5%34%13%
11355Queens$1,725$55,32637.4%22%33%
10467Bronx$1,522$49,33037.0%28%14%
10038Manhattan$3,189$105,41936.3%19%32%

Education, income and the ownership puzzle

Bachelor's-degree attainment is the tightest predictor of income in the city: r = 0.85 across ZIPs of 5,000+ residents, from 13% in 10457 (Tremont) and 13% in 10453 (University Heights) to 93% in 10069 (Lincoln Square), 88% in 11109 (Hunters Point) and 88% in 10075 (Upper East Side). Poverty runs the other way at r = -0.71. Median household income spans $24,086 in 10454 (Mott Haven) to the $250,001 Census ceiling in 10007 (Tribeca) and 10282 (Battery Park City), a 10-to-1 spread between the top and bottom ZIP.

What is unusual about New York is what education and income do not predict. Degree rate correlates with home value at only 0.67 and income at 0.70, both weaker than in the suburban metros, and owner-occupancy is uncorrelated with home value (-0.09) and only moderately, negatively, related to the ratio (-0.45). Density explains a little (0.38 with PTI). The reason is the owner-occupied universe itself: in a ZIP where 7% of households own, the median "home" is whatever those 7% happen to hold, a renovated brownstone in Harlem or a co-op share in the Bronx, and it can sit anywhere relative to the incomes of the 93% who rent. Home value in New York describes a housing sub-market, not a neighborhood.

Highest poverty rates (5,000+ residents)

ZIPBoroughPoverty rateMedian household incomeBachelor's or higherUnemploymentRent-to-income
10454Bronx45%$24,08614%18.0%51.2%
10456Bronx39%$34,95415%12.0%40.3%
10453Bronx38%$33,18613%14.0%51.3%
10455Bronx37%$36,11517%12.7%37.7%
10030Manhattan36%$39,80235%12.8%38.7%
10452Bronx35%$41,28816%12.7%41.2%
11206Brooklyn34%$61,43036%9.2%31.7%
10035Manhattan34%$45,12132%11.0%35.3%
10460Bronx34%$36,30915%16.1%43.7%
10472Bronx34%$41,03914%9.5%42.8%

Highest incomes (5,000+ residents)

ZIPBoroughMedian household incomeBachelor's or higherMedian home valuePTIOwner-occupied
10007Manhattan$250,000+83%$2,000,000+8.0+30%
10282Manhattan$250,000+84%$2,000,000+8.0+11%
10069Manhattan$233,63693%$2,000,000+8.6+28%
10280Manhattan$206,29987%$976,3004.734%
11109Queens$204,88588%$525,3002.619%
10005Manhattan$190,23386%$1,390,6007.318%
11215Brooklyn$185,86581%$1,622,3008.742%
10024Manhattan$181,56082%$1,687,8009.337%
10014Manhattan$176,39586%$1,284,1007.330%
10028Manhattan$175,12184%$1,602,6009.238%

The two Census ceilings and the co-op floor

The ACS caps reported median home value at $2,000,001 and median household income at $250,001. 4 ZIPs hit the home-value cap: 10007, 10013, 10069, 10282 (Tribeca, Tribeca, Lincoln Square and Battery Park City), and 3 hit the income cap (10004, 10007, 10282). Their true medians are higher and their ratios are floors. At the other end, 3 ZIPs report an owner-occupied median under $250,000: 10475 ($33,200), 10452 ($197,100), 10468 ($239,900), all in the Bronx, all cooperative or limited-equity stock. Neither end is an error; both are the ACS measuring the owner-occupied units that exist rather than the price of a house.

ZIPBoroughMedian home valueMedian household incomePTIOwner-occupiedBachelor's or higher
10007Manhattan$2,000,000+$250,000+8.0+30%83%
10013Manhattan$2,000,000+$161,15412.4+30%73%
10069Manhattan$2,000,000+$233,6368.6+28%93%
10282Manhattan$2,000,000+$250,000+8.0+11%84%
10475Bronx$33,200$62,7120.542%30%
10452Bronx$197,100$41,2884.83%16%
10468Bronx$239,900$46,2335.28%16%

The value screen: 9 ZIP codes

A screen calibrated for the rest of the country returns nothing in New York: no ZIP of 10,000+ residents has a ratio under 4 with majority ownership and below-median poverty, and only two clear 5. So the screen is set to the city: at least 10,000 residents, a price-to-income ratio at or under 6, at least half of households owner-occupied, and a poverty rate at or below the citywide ZIP median of 13.8%. 9 ZIP codes pass: Staten Island's South and West Shores (10308, 10307, 10310), eastern and central Queens (11362, 11375, 11413, 11411, 11422: Little Neck, Forest Hills, Cambria Heights, Springfield Gardens, Rosedale) and Riverdale in the Bronx (10471). Their median ratio is 5.4, their median income $116,458 and their median home value $646,800. Not one is in Manhattan or Brooklyn; the ownership condition alone eliminates all but 4 ZIPs in those two boroughs.

ZIPBoroughPopulationMedian home valueMedian household incomePTIOwner-occupiedPoverty rate
10471Bronx23,798$414,000$103,0464.059%6%
11362Queens18,492$530,800$122,0904.375%5%
10308Staten Island30,568$656,400$125,8505.280%6%
11375Queens76,839$552,400$105,9045.250%9%
10307Staten Island15,512$801,300$147,1845.484%6%
11413Queens45,965$656,000$118,4405.574%6%
11411Queens20,540$646,800$116,4585.685%7%
11422Queens33,757$665,500$114,6975.868%10%
10310Staten Island25,672$633,400$106,2506.060%13%

Limitations and how to cite this report

Cite as: NYC Zip Codes Data Team, New York City ZIP Code Affordability Report 2026, nyczipcodes.com, published 2026-09-21 (supersedes the July 2026 housing and income report at this address). Data: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates. Each ZIP code in the tables links to its full profile page.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most affordable ZIP code in New York City?

By price-to-income ratio among ZIPs of 5,000+ residents, Co-op City (10475) is lowest at 0.5, but its home value is a co-op share price. Among market-priced ZIPs the most attainable are 11109 (Hunters Point, 2.6), 10471 (Riverdale, 4.0), 11415 (Kew Gardens, 4.3) and 11362 (Little Neck, 4.3).

What is the least affordable ZIP code in New York City?

10454 (Mott Haven, the Bronx) has the highest ratio at 32.9: a $792,000 median owner-occupied home against a $24,086 median household income. East Harlem 10029 (23.1) and Central Harlem 10030 (21.2) follow. The Tribeca and Battery Park City ZIPs at the $2,000,001 Census cap are higher still on a floor basis.

Which borough is the least affordable?

Brooklyn, with a median ZIP ratio of 11.8, ahead of the Bronx (8.8) and Manhattan (8.6). Staten Island is the most affordable at 6.6, followed by Queens at 7.9. The Bronx has the heaviest rent burden: a borough median of 37.7% of income.

How many New York City ZIP codes are rent-burdened?

55 of the 177 ZIP codes with rent data have a median gross rent above 30% of median household income; 11 are above 40% and 2 above 50%. 16 of the 55 are in the Bronx. The highest is 10453 at 51.3%.

Why does Co-op City show a home value of $33,200?

The American Community Survey reports the value of owner-occupied units, and in Co-op City (10475) those are shares in a limited-equity Mitchell-Lama cooperative, priced by formula rather than by the market. The same applies to 10452, 10468 in the west Bronx.

Where can a median income still buy a home in New York City?

Our value screen (10,000+ residents, ratio at or under 6, majority owner-occupied, poverty at or below the citywide median) returns 9 ZIP codes: Bronx 10471, Queens 11362, Staten Island 10308, Queens 11375, Staten Island 10307, Queens 11413, Queens 11411, Queens 11422, Staten Island 10310.

What data does this report use?

U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates at the ZIP Code Tabulation Area level, the same dataset behind every ZIP code page on this site. Figures are computed by the NYC Zip Codes Data Team; no third-party estimates are used.