Social Explorer wanted to find out how her monthly rent of $1,048.72 compared with what others pay.

Looking at the 2005-09 American Community Survey data on rent, Dunaway was indeed getting a bargain.

Assuming a three percent annual rent increase (an estimate based on prior lease rules for rent-stabilized apartments), Dunaway would have likely paid an average rent of about $933 per year (spanning from $878.28 in 2005 to $988.52 in 2009), or just 55 percent of the median monthly rent of $1,697 for the neighborhood.  During this time, her apartment would have been a good deal citywide as well, where the median rent was $1,029.

With rent consistently under $1,000, this apartment would have been less expensive than over 85.6 percent of rentals in the neighborhood.  For this Upper East Side census tract, median rent represented 26.5 percent of a household’s median income, so perhaps Dunaway was earning just $42,249.06 per year.  We may not be able to find out her actual income, but we do suspect this apartment had no wire hangers ever.

To learn more about this block and Faye Dunaway’s other properties, check out Social Explorer’s maps and reports.