Sky-high rents are a shock to New Yorkers who moved here during the pandemic and those who lived here long before.
The two thought about signing a lease elsewhere, but Cleary lost her job so they decided to move into an Airbnb until she finds employment.
"So our rent was actually discounted," she says."And also our apartment has in-unit washer dryer, which you don't find a lot in New York City unless you're paying a premium.""So right when we received the lease renewal in the mail, we just knew immediately we're not going to do this," she says."For a whole week I was just breaking down, looking at the prices," she says.
"I actually did refresh my page because I thought this was an error and I looked at the number and I just started laughing because it was so ridiculous," she says."I started laughing because I was like, '$3,500, $3,500, $3,500.' Like, I had to keep saying it out loud to myself because it was such a ridiculous number that I was like, 'This cannot be possible.'"