How Much Would Your Apartment Have Cost In 1940?

Rising rents are a topic that’s received no shortage of discussion around here–and for those of you currently looking for a new place in the area (or out of it, really), or just lamenting your bank balance right now, here’s a little something to make you really want that Happy Hour drink.

Curbed recently scoured the archives of The Village Voice to find the value of apartments around NYC from the 1940s up until today, and used a calculator that accounts for inflation over the years to see what each value might translate to in 2013. Can you believe in the early half of the 20th Century, you could get a place off Washington Square Park for about $150 a month? Or that in the 1960s, you could have had a Brooklyn Heights spot for under $80? That’s about 2/3 of a MetroCard, so we’re clear on that.

Even into the 1990s, a room near the Brooklyn Museum was $450 per month–so what could a place on this side of the park possibly go for? The calculator tells us our rent in 1940 would be about $103, which makes us wonder where the indoor pool, 24-hour concierge service, and free champagne and truffles have been hiding.

Check out the full tear-jerking article on Curbed, play with the calculator, and see what you’d be paying over the years in Ditmas Park.

Photo via 401(K) 2013