“Still I Rise”… And So Does the Rent
By Saif Choudhury
Two years after Dr. Maya Angelou’s passing in 2014, her residence in Central Harlem is on the market for $5.1 million. If purchased at the asking price, the four-story, five-bedroom townhouse on 120th street would break the record for a Harlem residence — currently set at $5 million. Angelou bought the property for only $435,000 back in 2002, but many cite its now historical status as a reason for the townhouse’s multimillion dollar value.
However, the price of the house is not the only thing that has changed over the past 15 years. The Central Harlem of today looks a lot different than the neighborhood of 2002. Just take the vibrant 125th Street: in 2002, the famous Gateway Building, Gotham Plaza, and Harlem Center were not fully complete yet. The historic Apollo Theater was undergoing reconstruction worth $50 million. And a landmark of 125th Street, Pathmark, was still a hotspot for Harlem residents.
The street numbers may still be the same, but other numbers in Harlem have changed drastically. Everyone agrees that things in 2002 were cheaper; but how much cheaper may surprise many. When Dr. Angelou bought her house, the median rent for an apartment in Central Harlem was $861. Nowadays as that house is about to be sold, the median rent for that same apartment has increased 90% to $1,560. In other words, if you could travel back in time with the money you have today, you would be able to afford two of the same apartment.
Rent is not the only thing that has increased over the years. Around the time that Angelou purchased her home, condominiums were selling for $237,080 on average. The same housing unit 15 years later is worth triple that amount — at $744,912. Essentially, the owner of a two-bedroom and one bathroom condo in 2002 would only be able to afford the bathroom now.
This trend in Harlem real estate has come with other affects. Because so many low-income renters cannot afford the increase in rent, the number of apartments available to that demographic has plummeted. In fact, the number of those apartments has decreased from 995,000 in 2002 to 555,000 in 2014 — a whopping 44%.
At the end of the day, a changing Central Harlem is just a part of an ever changing New York. If a gallon of milk went from $2.79 at the turn of the century to $3.82 15 years later, one would assume that the New York of today has changed vastly from what it was in 2002.
