In 2020, Thelma Rose Annan moved into her Manhattan apartment paying $1,882 per month in rent. By 2021, it was $2,400 per month. This year, it rose by another $1,100, bringing her monthly rent to a whopping $3,500. “This jump increase is too much and I simply cannot afford it,” Annan says. The price hikes led her to leave the city. “I’m going to put my stuff in storage and go to Europe and work remotely there,” she says.