Renters' Income Compared To Their Holiday Spending In Major American Cities, Visualized

The holiday season can place a huge strain on your pocketbook no matter where you live, but apparently no one's budget is more wrecked come January than renters in New York City. That's the takeaway of a new graph from RentCafé, which shows the difference between renters' income and their expenditures — including holiday gifts, meals and decorations — over the two months of the holiday season. On average, Americans will shell out $1,100 on holiday-specific expenditures during the holiday season and will spend $400 more than they earn in November and December combined, according to RentCafé.

If you're wondering how it's possible for the average New Yorker to spend $4,200 more than they earn over the course of two months, well, that's because RentCafé's numbers come with a bit of a caveat. RentCafé looked at the median income (according to the American Community Survey) but at the average rent (according to Yardi Matrix) when calculating the end-of-season balance. The median is probably a better reflection of the average person's income and rent, since in cities like New York there are quite a few ultra-high-income outliers dropping a ridiculous amount of money on rent. 

However, even if these numbers are a little fuzzy, we can definitely confirm, as New Yorkers, that we have spent too much money on Christmas trees, baking supplies, gifts and celebratory meals out this holiday season and will probably finish out the month in the red.

[Read more at RentCafé]