It’s always been expensive to raise a child in New York City. Try having three.
The median rent for an apartment with three or more bedrooms in Manhattan is over $7,000. Inventory for large rental apartments is at a six-year low. Day care for three young children can run some families $50,000 or even $100,000 a year.
The ever-rising cost of having a large family in New York has fueled an exodus of parents with young children that has accelerated over the last few years, transforming the city’s demographics, culture and politics.
The number of New York households with three or more children has dropped by nearly 17 percent over the past decade, according to an analysis of census data by the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank. The number of one-child households grew slightly, while two-child households held steady during the same period, indicating that large families are driving the decline.
“If we can’t hold onto families, we are giving up New Yorkers who would otherwise anchor our neighborhoods, schools and our tax base,” said Eli Dvorkin, the center’s editorial and policy director, who noted that New York’s decline in families with young children was worse than in other big American cities. “That’s not sustainable.”
In interviews, middle-class New York City parents of three said they were confronting the limits of what the city could offer their families.
Stephanie Park, who had her third child a few days ago, thought her and her husband’s finance careers would allow them to buy a home. But the cost of renting a three-bedroom apartment in Park Slope, Brooklyn, close to some of the city’s best public elementary schools, has left the couple falling far short of their savings goals. They are delaying homeownership indefinitely.
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