Capital Region housing cost for both rental and mortgages are higher than New York City. When considering the cost of housing verses the median income, 51.4% of households in Albany devote more than 35% of their income to housing as opposed to 42.2% devoted to housing in New York City. This is according to the Times Union Article on Monday, January 10, 2011, “Rent eats a bigger slice of the tenants’ pie.” The average Capital Region rent from 2007 to 2009 went from $779.00 to $833.00, the article reports that are according to the census. It is possible that rent has increased because of the housing meltdown and that there is more demand for rent, and less people are able to qualify for mortgages after mortgage underwriting has gotten tighter since the economic down term.