An analysis of Lower Manhattan neighborhoods, parsed by data about personal income and indebtedness, yields two insights. First, people who live Downtown are doing very well financially. Second, they are in hock up to their eyeballs.
This information comes from LendEDU.com (pronounced “Lend-E-D-U”), an online marketplace for student loan refinancing, which functions a bit like a Lendingtree.com for college debt. Using statistics from credit reporting agency Experian, LendEDU.com ranked all 174 residential zip codes in the five boroughs of New York City by two criteria indicating financial well-being (average credit score and average income) and four benchmarks that help to gauge indebtedness: balances on home mortgages, student loans, credit cards, and auto loans.
The eight residential zip codes in Lower Manhattan rank among the highest of all 174 communities in New York City for positive metrics like income and creditworthiness, but also for more sobering indicators, like outstanding balances on home mortgages, students loans, credit cards, and auto loans.
Lower Manhattan is comprised of eight residential zip codes. (There are actually as many as a dozen other zip codes in Lower Manhattan, but there are mostly specialized designations for individual large office buildings and government facilities.) The five-digit identifiers that refer to places where people live (along with their approximate boundaries) are:
* 10280/Battery Park City South (below Brookfield Place)
* 10282/Battery Park City North (above Brookfield Place)
* 10007/Southern Tribeca (West Street to Broadway, north of Vesey Street and south of Chambers Street)
* 10013/Northern Tribeca (north of Chambers Street and south of Canal Street)
* 10006/Greenwich South (Broadway to West Street, south of Vesey Street and north of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel)
* 10004/Southern FiDi (West Street to the East River, south of Beaver Street)
* 10005/Eastern FiDi (Broadway to the East River, south of Maiden Lane, north of Beaver Street)
* 10038/the Civic Center and Seaport (Broadway to the East River, north of Maiden Lane and stretching a few blocks beyond the Brooklyn Bridge)
Amid these precincts, according to LendEDU.com, vast sums of money slosh in and wash out on a monthly basis. For average credit ratings, Battery Park City North is ranked eighth among all New York neighborhoods (with a score of 729), while Battery Park City South comes in at 16 (with a score 724). Southern and Northern Tribeca rank 27 and 28 (with scores of 682 and 602), respectively. And the rest of Lower Manhattan’s neighborhoods tally in the 40s, 50s, and 60s.
Income is another story. Using Experian’s Income Insight W2 database (which estimates the wage earnings of a consumer), LendEDU.com ranks Southern Tribeca as the second-highest paid neighborhood in New York City (with a score of 682), while Battery Park City North comes in third (scoring 659). Northern Tribeca claims eighth place (602), while Southern FiDi notches the 14th rank (score: 592).
But while these numbers appear to indicate that Lower Manhattanites are flush with cash, they are also deep in debt. In terms of average home mortgage balances, five Downtown neighborhoods claim half the spots in the top ten: Northern Battery Park City ranks first in the City (at $912,596), followed by Southern Tribeca (in the second spot, with $852,373), and Northern Tribeca (coming in third, with $846,913). Fifth place City-wide goes to Eastern FiDi ($634,715), and the seventh spot is claimed by Southern FiDi ($599,664).
Another indicator, average student loan debt by neighborhood, is only slightly less sobering, with three Downtown communities claiming slots in the top ten: Greenwich South is number five (with an average balance of $51,933); Eastern FiDi is seventh ($50,515); and Battery Park City North is tenth ($49,727). The only other Lower Manhattan appearance in the Top 20 rankings for student loan debt is by Battery Park South ($48,372).
For highest average credit card balances, four Lower Manhattan ‘hoods rank in the Top Ten. Battery Park City North comes first of all communities in New York City, with $7,851. Southern Tribeca follows in third place, with $7,574, just barely edging our fourth-place Greenwich South with $6,959. And Battery Park City South comes in seventh, with $6,773. Southern FiDi notches twelfth place with $6,626.
In the automotive-debt column of the ledger, Lower Manhattan would get a clean bill of health, not even breaking the top 40 among New York City neighborhoods, were it not for one black sheep: Those spendthrifts in Northern Tribeca rank number one among all 174 zip codes in the five boroughs, with an average outstanding balance of $19,447.
The original data on which this story is based can be viewed (along with an interactive map) by browsing: lendedu.com/blog/new-york-city-financial-study/