RentCafe: What $1,500 monthly rent gets in Nassau, Suffolk
Rent per square foot for some Long Island apartments rival those of San Francisco, according to a study by RentCafe. Credit: iStockphoto/Getty Images/Ajax9
Rent rates per square foot for some Long Island apartments rival those of San Francisco, where a budget of $1,500 gets less than 400 square feet of space, according to a study by apartment search website RentCafe.com.
A $1,500 monthly rental cost can pay for 416 square feet in Glen Cove, 479 square feet in Hempstead and 365 square feet in Mineola in 2024, per RentCafe findings. The data showed the same rent payment would cover 529 square feet in West Babylon and 518 square feet in Patchogue. Over the Nassau border, in Long Island City, $1,500 a month covers 241 square feet.
The space Long Island residents can rent for that payment is smaller than the national average of 729 square feet, according to the research.
Based on data from Yardi Matrix, a sister company to RentCafe, experts used the average rent price and average apartment size in various geographic areas to calculate price per square foot. The study included only multifamily properties of 50 or more units.
RentCafe found the most space for the least amount of money was in the South and Midwest. In Wichita, Kansas, $1,500 a month translates to 1,359 square feet, according to the study. In second place is Toledo, Ohio, where the same rent payment secures 1,345 square feet.
The most expensive cities are on the East Coast and in California. Manhattan, where $1,500 equates to 228 square feet, took the No. 1 spot. Brooklyn followed closely; there, $1,500 means a 300-square-foot apartment.
As agents in South Shore areas like the Five Towns and Long Beach, Gil Shemtov and Tom Tripodi said they see "entry-level" studio apartments starting at just shy of $2,000 a month.
"As far as a response to an inquiry at a $1,500 rental, I would say it’s actually quite challenging at this point to find even a studio at that price point anywhere in our market," said Shemtov, of Douglas Elliman’s Tripodi Shemtov Team.
It’s actually quite challenging at this point to find even a studio at that price point anywhere in our market.
— Gil Shemtov, of Douglas Elliman
The pair deals largely with high-end rentals in beachside communities with amenities — pools, barbecues, tennis courts — which come at a premium, they said. If they had to guess, a typical studio might measure 400 to 500 square feet; but in terms of price per foot, a $1,500 comp "doesn’t exist" there, they said.
In general, comparing rental options presents challenges similar to those of the housing market as a whole.
"It’s apples to oranges to pineapples," Shemtov said. "Whether it’s the luxury building, or a two-family house, or a no-frills walkup, your size and spacing is going to be different."
Doug Ressler, a business intelligence manager for Yardi Matrix, encourages those browsing the rental market to do their research on a public platform like RentCafe, and to remember that the numbers are not static.
"Because of the changing situation and the changing conditions, the numbers are like a [stock market] ticker," Ressler said. "Demand changes, people move, people migrate, they move in, they move out."
Arielle Dollinger joined Newsday as a staff reporter in 2022. Previously, she covered local and national news as a freelancer for The New York Times, Newsday and other outlets.
