Inflation aide, It doesn't look unrealistic. You could rent a 2 bedroom apt in NYC for less than 1K a mo. in 1979. I can compare it to Boston in 1979 (2nd-3rd after NYC) where a 2 bedroom in the nice part of Boston was about 400.00. At 33K income a year, he is earning approx, 700.00 per week .
Out of curiosity, I found this: unbelievable. (If only I had acted on it then)
70s
Average Rent: $335
$50 in 1940 Is Now: $115 to $140
In the Village, less than $150 would be more than enough for a shared apartment. Every week, dozens of apartment shares were advertised. In May 1972, a young person could share a brownstone garden apartment on Grove Street for just $100 or an Upper East Side apartment for $135. That same price could also rent an efficiency in Downtown Brooklyn or any number of apartments in the Lower East Side. On the higher end, a two-bedroom brownstone apartment on Prospect Park was listed for $315, while townhouse units on the Upper West Side started at $425.
[June 1982 ads]
1980s
Average Rent: $1,700
$50 in 1940 Is Now: $250 to $310
Average rents may have been pretty high, but crime rates were high and many parts of New York were more than gritty. As such, there were a lot of cheap places to live, especially Downtown and in Brooklyn. The Lower East Side offered a lot of options for the $300 price range; June 1982 ads show a Ludlow Street studio and a two-room East 2nd Street apartment (in a "well kept locked building") both for $275. For a real bargain, one could rent a four-room unit at 332 East 4th Street for $295. Across the river, a "charm 4 rms" on a "beaut blk" near BAM was listed for $325, while units in a Williamsburg walk-up were asking $275 to $32
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