033: I Proved It With Math
Or, I'm answering a lazy question with some quick research
Hi friends,
In 2019, I did a series on my now-defunct Tumblr looking at Friends and how the series would have to change in order to make it work 25 years later. I examined how the storylines change if they all use cell phones, how joking references like “Joey Buttafuoco” would have to be updated, and Ross’s problematic… everything. I also wrote a monthly essay about the show, usually about a bigger social issue present. Most of them aren’t worth reprinting, but this is one of my favorites. It rebukes one of the most common and laziest critiques of the show: Can Monica and Rachel afford their apartment?
Reader, I have proved with math that they can.
I have several close friends who didn’t watch Friends growing up. (In fact, I’d say that most of my friends don’t like Friends, which really proves that opposites do attract.) One of their major issues with the sitcom is how allegedly unrealistic the show is. “Monica and Rachel don’t make enough money to afford their apartment in NYC!” They cry.
Well, kids, I’m here to dispel that myth right now. Monica and Rachel absolutely do make enough money to afford their apartment in NYC.
Rent control has been present in some form or another in NYC since the 1920s but was more formalized in 1943 when Roosevelt passed federal laws about price stabilization nationwide. Even after his temporary measure expired, rent remained under control by the local government in New York. In the 1950s, the most expensive apartments in NYC were deregulated, meaning prices could escalate to whatever landlords decided was market value as soon as the lease was up for renewal. This is a key detail—landlords can’t raise rent (in New York) to whatever number they want in the middle of a lease.
In 1969, a Rent Stabilization Act increased the number of apartments that were regulated again, and in 1971 the power was passed from the city government to the state government. In 1997, apartments with market-value rents over $2000/month (about $3327 in 2021 dollars) were deregulated, and a law was put into effect saying that deregulation of rent stabilization could also begin when the total household annual income hit $175,000. (That’s about $291,000 in 2021 dollars, though I’d bet that the law hasn’t been updated to reflect that.) By 2002, however, only 31.9% of NYC apartments had been deregulated, meaning the other 68.1% were still under some form of rent regulation.
Now, for a renter to qualify for rent stabilization, laws an apartment needs to have been continuously held by the same lessee for decades, most likely since about 1971 when the power was passed to the state government. In some cases, the lease can be transferred to a family member without changing the monthly rent, but from my research, it looks like that could only apply from parent to child, and there are probably income restrictions on it. In general, when an apartment is continuously occupied, rent for it can only be increased by no more than 7.5% every two years, and it can only increase more than that if the apartment should become vacant. It’s my understanding that once the apartment is vacated, it is automatically deregulated, and it is fair game to charge almost whatever you want at that point, as long as people will pay it.
The key here is that rent cannot rise to match inflation. When inflation is only 2% per year (which used to be the accepted norm), it doesn’t matter because a 7.5% hike every other year mostly matches that. But when inflation is more than 2% per year, the physical number (not the actual buying power of the number) is what matters.
So, what does this have to do with Rachel and Monica?
Well, I’m pretty sure our friends live somewhere in The Village (correct me if I’m wrong), I think on the east side, though I’m not sure we’re ever given a proper address. My triangulation is mostly based on Joey complaining that Ross is moving “all the way uptown” which is “like an hour away” in S5E6 “The One with the Yeti.” Also, in S2E10 Ridiculously Dull Bobby tells his story about trying to find a hardware store open past midnight in The Village, and I imagine he lives somewhere near Monica.
We know from S3E6 “The One with the Flashback”, that Monica’s apartment is actually her grandmother’s. Monica got it when her grandmother moved to Florida, presumably just a few years before since Monica is 26, not too long out of college. Monica says, “Otherwise I could never afford it…so if the landlord asks, I’m an 87-year-old woman who is afraid of her VCR.” From this, we know the apartment is (illegally) under her grandmother’s name still. It couldn’t have been passed to Monica because it didn’t go to her parents first. But, because of this little lie, the rent has been controlled since sometime before 1989, around when Monica would have graduated from college.
In the 1980s, the average monthly rent in NYC was already $1700 (nearly $4000 in 2021 dollars, jfc). But on the Lower East Side apartments were going for as low as $275-$350/month due to the high crime rates. Nicer 2 bed/1 bath apartments, like where Monica and Rachel live, might have gone for up to $750/month, but absolutely no more since the building doesn’t seem to have any amenities–no gym, no doorman, etc. Under the 1970 law, rent can only be increased a maximum of 7.5% every other year, up until it hits $2000/month, at which point it isn’t regulated anymore. So, if Monica’s grandmother rented the apartment in 1985 at $750/month (which would be on the high end), in 1987 it would cost $806.50, in 1989 $866.72, and in 1995 it would cost a whopping $1,076.72/month. Still not cheap, but split between two people, $538 a month is doable. Even if Rachel’s the worst server in the world, she can still scrape together $550 per month for rent and utilities.
This price, of course, assumes that Monica’s grandmother got the apartment in 1985. What if she got it in the 1970s? In the 70s, the average rent in NYC was $335/month, and a nice two-bedroom brownstone right on Prospect Park went for $315. (A lot happened to make prices spike in the 1980s, and I’m not going to get into it here.) In the 1970s, an apartment on the Lower East Side could easily cost under $150/month. But, let’s guess the rent for this apartment in 1975 was $150/month, since it’s 2 bedrooms and nice. In 1985, the same apartment would be $215.34, waaaay under the 1985 market value. In 1995, around when Rachel might have finally started paying rent on her own, their 2 bed/1 bath in the Village would only be $309.15 under rent control, split between the two of them. How Monica pays rent on her own and still affords nice clothes before Rachel moves in is starting to make a lot more sense now, hmm?
When the show ended in 2004, the most their rent could have been (assuming the apartment had been in Monica’s grandmother’s name since 1975) is $443.82/month. If we want to be really careful, we can assume that Monica’s grandmother has had the apartment since at least 1970, which would start the rent even lower. So yeah, yeah they totally could afford that apartment.
If you want that math… in 1975 rent is $150/month.
In 1977, becomes 161.25
In 1979, becomes 173.34
In 1981, becomes 186.34
In 1983, becomes 200.32
In 1985, becomes 215.34
In 1987, becomes 231.49
In 1989, becomes 248.85
In 1991, becomes 267.52
In 1993, becomes 287.58
In 1995, becomes 309.15
In 1997, becomes 332.34
In 1999, becomes 357.26
In 2001, becomes 384.06
In 2003, becomes 412.86
In 2005, becomes 443.82.
It’s worth noting that residents could also protest the 7.5% hike if they felt that the building had code violations, or if the landlord wasn’t providing the legally guaranteed amenities. Obviously, Monica and Rachel are 1) living there illegally and 2) not particularly good at handling conflict, so they’re hardly going to protest if their rent increases. But they could. Landlords also weren’t required to hike the rent 7.5%, they just couldn’t go over than that. So maybe some years the landlord didn’t increase the rent, or other years it was only raised by 3% or 5%. In other words, that $443/month is the absolute highest their rent could have been.
In S10E18, “The Last One Part 2,” Chandler confirms all of this by telling one of his new babies that their first home was a happy one, “but more importantly, because of rent control, it was a friggin’ steal!”
Speaking of him, Chandler’s rent was likely a lot more, since he probably didn’t move into the building before 1987, around when he graduated from college. He consistently makes more money than Rachel until late in the show, and probably more than Monica too, so theoretically at least, he can afford to pay a higher price.
We do know that in 1999, when Chandler moves in with Monica (S6E6), Chandler thinks $1500 would cover Joey living alone for a couple of months, but how believable this figure is depends on how much Chandler is trying to cover. The average rent in NYC in 1999 had already soared to $3800, but around Park Slope, Crown Heights, and the Village, where the friends lived, prices were still hovering around $1000/month. Assuming Chandler signed a 1987 lease that set the rent at around $800 (similar to the 1985 lease we talked about earlier), by 1999 it would have been $1234.64/month. Chandler could intend for the $1500 to cover his share of the rent for a couple of months, meaning the rent might be around $1200/month, which is pretty reasonable for this area at that time. Of course, the show’s running gag is that Chandler pays for everything for Joey, which would make $1500 too low to cover him for longer than a month.
So, there we have it. Let’s all go back in time and sign NYC leases in the 1960s.
All my average rent numbers come from Curbed NY.
For more on rent control laws in NYC, Wikipedia has a good overview to start with.
A very similar piece to this was originally published in Through A Lens. You can still check out the entire Friends in 2019 series. Obviously, I’m bringing this back because of the Friends reunion special that came out on HBO Max last week. If you loved Friends and miss the easy joy of the show, you’ll love the special.
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All the best, friends!
Valorie