Sonia Hendrix, the 37-year-old founder of Gallery PR, almost fell off her couch after opening an email from her property manager, indicating that her rent was being raised to about $5,100 per month for her one-bedroom apartment in Tribeca. When she moved into the unit in June 2021, her rent was $4,030 per month. Hendrix called it a “sweetheart COVID deal.” But now, after living in New York for close to 10 years, she’s rethinking her situation—and that could mean leaving the city.
Her apartment is directly in front of the Greenwich Hotel, Hendrix says, calling it a “prime location.” However, besides the location and a doorman, there’s nothing special about it. In fact, she says, the lobby and hallways are worn down, and she lived without a functioning bathtub for a year. Hendrix attempted to work something out with her property manager, asking them to reconsider the increase because she’s been a good tenant, but she was instead told, “You’re lucky we didn’t raise it to this last year.” After choosing not to renew her lease, and having to move out by the end of May, Hendrix started looking around at apartments and condos on the market to see if she could afford to take the next step and buy. She was looking at homes particularly in Chelsea because, after living all over Manhattan, Hendrix says she knows what she wants.
“It’s really underscored for me like, ‘Wow, I am so far away from being able to purchase an apartment, a condo, a home,’” Hendrix tells Fortune. But the homes she looked at range from $1.3 million to $1.5 million because, Hendrix says, she refuses to go “backwards” in terms of her living situation, as her level of happiness affects her productivity. Still, Hendrix makes a little over $200,000 annually after taxes, she says, which is much higher than the city’s median household income of $70,663 per the Census Bureau. Nonetheless, it “feels so unattainable,” Hendrix notes.
“It’s just so frustrating because the cost of everything is going up,” Hendrix says, adding that as a single woman it’s even harder to afford owning a home in the city. Some of her colleagues, former New Yorkers who have moved away, tell her that New York City isn’t a town for singles anymore. They tell her it’s very difficult to be single in New York and own a property. After looking around, Hendrix says, “they are so right,” adding, “How am I going to get there as a single woman? If I were married, this [process] would be much faster.”
Let’s say Hendrix were to go with an apartment that’s priced at $1.3 million, which is slightly lower than the average home value in Chelsea, but more than double the average home value in New York City per Zillow. If Hendrix put down 20%, or $260,000, her monthly mortgage payment at a 30-year fixed rate of 6.5% (given the current market rate) would be $6,574. And that’s without accounting for taxes and insurance.
Hendrix says that if she had a partner, that “wouldn’t be an issue at all,” given they’d split everything down the middle, she assumes. But that’s not the case, and even so Hendrix says she’s “struggling to save any money in this economy,” so she’ll likely keep renting, but the question is where?
Following her apartment nightmare, as Hendrix calls it, she’s asking herself if she should stay in New York. Or should she move to Asheville, N.C.—where her family lives—and buy a beautiful home, likely for around the same amount she’d spend on an apartment in New York. Or should she move to New Jersey, and rent an apartment for substantially less, which she’s already talking to a broker about. There’s a one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey that Hendrix has been looking at, and it’s $3,000 per month versus her $5,100 per month in Tribeca. The New Jersey apartment also has a pool, doesn’t charge for parking (unlike the $600 she’s paying now), and has a doorman. If she goes that route she’s saving more than $2,100 per month, even though it’d still take her years to save for a down payment, Hendrix says.
“I feel like there’s a tipping point,” Hendrix says. “I’m trying to stay in New York, I want to stay here, but I’m kind of just over it in terms of the cost…I’m in a toxic relationship with New York City right now.”
Hendrix’s public relations firm, which she founded around five years ago, represents brands across industries, from fashion to cannabis. The agency’s Instagram page says it’s “built for the new vanguard of global leaders and change-makers,” and what better place to do so than New York? And to some degree, that’s what’s holding Hendrix back from moving out of the city, because she feels it’ll have an impact on her business. Hendrix says the best deals and features she’s gotten have happened by “being in the right place at the right time.”
Hendrix says renting in New Jersey is something she’s seriously considering to meet her five- and 10-year goals of owning a home, finding a partner, and having a family.
“I’m freaked out about that because it’s just a big lifestyle change,” Hendrix says. “I just have to commit and just go all in.” And despite being 37 years old, as she rethinks her location, she’ll definitely consult her mom—as some people do regardless of being a so-called adult. Either way, Hendrix says, if she’s not ready to make the move yet, she’ll give it another year in the city before moving, telling Fortune there’s a “beautiful” apartment in Greenpoint that she’s got her eye on, but the rent is around $5,000, even though she knows that she’s being squeezed financially largely by rent.
[Figures in this story have been updated after reviewing financial documents.]
