Can't Beat the NYC Rental Market? Maybe It's Time to Buy Instead

Brownstone buildings line a street of the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in the Brooklyn borough of New York.

Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

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New York City renters already pay some of the highest rents in the country, but the widespread use of Airbnb Inc. is pushing even more people out of the city by contributing to soaring rents, New York City’s Comptroller Scott Stringer said, citing a commissioned reportBloomberg Terminal by the city. Airbnb countersBloomberg Terminal that rents are now falling in many neighborhoods.

But now, with condo sales in Manhattan and Brooklyn faltering, an affordable place to live may instead just be a down payment away.