6 figures to be "middle class" in NYC!

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Byrdie714

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N.Y.C. so costly you need to earn six figures to make middle class
BY Elizabeth Hays
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, February 6th 2009, 1:04 PM

More than $2,000 a month for day care. Some of the highest phone bills in the country. Jam-packed, 50-plus-minute commutes to work.

You knew it was tough to live in New York City — but this tough?

A new report shows just how ugly — and expensive — New York City can be, especially for the middle class, squeezed by skyrocketing living costs and stagnant wages.

The study, released Thursday by the Center for an Urban Future, shows that New York City is hands-down the most expensive place to live in the country.

Among the findings:

A New Yorker would have to make $123,322 a year to have the same standard of living as someone making $50,000 in Houston.
In Manhattan, a $60,000 salary is equivalent to someone making $26,092 in Atlanta.
You knew it was expensive to live in Manhattan, but Queens? The report tagged Queens the fifth most expensive urban area in the country.
The average monthly rent in New York is $2,801, 53% higher than San Francisco, the second most expensive city in the country.
“Income levels that would enable a very comfortable lifestyle in other locales barely suffice to provide the basics in New York City,” the report concludes.

Other belt-tightening details include:

New Yorkers paid about $34 a month for phone service in 2006. In San Francisco, similar service cost $17 a month.
Home heating costs have jumped 125% in the past five years and are up 243% since 1998.
Full-time day care costs can run up to $25,000 a year for one child, depending on the neighborhood, or about as much as some college tuitions.
Meanwhile, wages in the city have remained mostly flat in all boroughs but Manhattan — even during the boom years from 2003 to 2007.
It’s not only money that makes life here hard, researchers said — which might not be news to most New Yorkers.

Take commutes, for example. The report found that many New Yorkers put up with commutes double the national average of 25.5 minutes.

Commuting to Manhattan from St. Albans, Queens, can take 51.7 minutes, while getting there from Canarsie, Brooklyn, can run 50.8 minutes.

Researchers said the combination of skyrocketing costs, stagnant wages and a deteriorating quality of life forced hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers to flee the city for cheaper areas during the boom years from 2002 to 2006.

The report found that more New Yorkers left each year during the boom than left during the dark days of the early 1990s.

Center for Urban Future Director Jonathan Bowles noted that the number of people fleeing the city has slowed since 2007 as the rest of the country has sunk into recession, jobs have dried up nationwide and home values here started to sink.

Mayor Bloomberg downplayed the report but said he is concerned about the constant drumbeat of job losses in the city.

“There is turnover all the time. That’s very healthy,” Bloomberg said. “We’re doing fine, but it is very worrisome, the number of people who are losing their jobs.”
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N.Y.C. so costly you need to earn six figures to make middle class

Holy Cow!
 
The $$$ amount mentioned in the article is a HUGE understatement.

The average monthly rent in New York is $2,801 - yea... that's the average for rat-infested ghetto apt. You want a "nice" one? or even decent one? That's at least $3,500+ for 1-BR. Half of my condo is rented out.. with at least $3,400/month

You need at least $250,000 to be "comfortable" middle class around here. $123,322/yr will get you a mediocre living condition around here. :mad2:
 
Jiro said:
The $$$ amount mentioned in the article is a HUGE understatement.

The average monthly rent in New York is $2,801 - yea... that's the average for rat-infested ghetto apt. You want a "nice" one? or even decent one? That's at least $3,500+ for 1-BR. Half of my condo is rented out.. with at least $3,400/month

You need at least $250,000 to be "comfortable" middle class around here. $123,322/yr will get you a mediocre living condition around here. :mad2:
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That is $ 2788.00 more than my mortgage payment! That's outrageous!
 
Byrdie714 said:
That is $ 2788.00 more than my mortgage payment! That's outrageous!
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now you know why I live with my parents. It's ridiculous!! I just saw this in mail from my town for estimated property tax... a whopping $9,100!!!! WTF!!! :mad2:

it's only matter of time till we gotta move out
 
I know lots of people who work in nyc but live about 1 hour to 2 hours away from nyc. :shock:
 
Jiro said:
now you know why I live with my parents. It's ridiculous!! I just saw this in mail from my town for estimated property tax... a whopping $9,100!!!! WTF!!! :mad2:

it's only matter of time till we gotta move out
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do you plan to stay in NJ for a long time?
 
Frisky Feline said:
I know lots of people who work in nyc but live about 1 hour to 2 hours away from nyc. :shock:
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yep. I think I will just live on border of PA/NY and commute to NYC via train. rich people commute from CT or "ritzy" towns in NJ aka Bergen County.
 
Wow.. That's crazy.
5k+ will get you a rich guy's house-semi-mansion here.
2-3k/month can get you a decent house in a decent area in So cal. 2 story house in a block of 24 homes, in a neighborhood of around 200-300 homes.

I can't imagine paying it off in NYC. Most people here, the avg income for one person doesn't reach 6 digits. Pooled, possibly.
 
Jiro said:
I'd like to but this living cost is becoming outrageous. we'll see.
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yeah i dont blame you for that. i realllllly wish that my parents would wait till i finish my school and plan to buy my parents house. :mad2: but they hurriedly left LI to florida while i was in college. :mad2:
 
Frisky Feline said:
yeah i dont blame you for that. i realllllly wish that my parents would wait till i finish my school and plan to buy my parents house. :mad2: but they hurriedly left LI to florida while i was in college. :mad2:
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oh you reside in FL?
 
Jiro said:
now you know why I live with my parents. It's ridiculous!! I just saw this in mail from my town for estimated property tax... a whopping $9,100!!!! WTF!!! :mad2:

it's only matter of time till we gotta move out
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$ 9,100 for property tax?! Sh**!

I just saw mine and it is only $ 985.00 for the year!

Jiro said:
I'd like to but this living cost is becoming outrageous. we'll see.
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Remember--there are other places in the country where you can live comfortably.
 
Byrdie714 said:
$ 9,100 for property tax?! Sh**!

I just saw mine and it is only $ 985.00 for the year!
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I'm literally swearing worse than Christian Bale who blew up at Shane (Director of Photography) on Terminator 4 movie set)

Byrdie714 said:
Remember--there are other places in the country where you can live comfortably.
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My requirement is to live near to or in metropolitan/city. any suggestion? :mad2:
 
 
naisho said:
Wow, I just compared my city vs NYC, NY vs NJC, NJ

So much differences.

Cerritos, California (CA 90703) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, move, moving, houses news, sex offenders
New York, New York (NY) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, move, moving, houses news, sex offenders
Jersey City, New Jersey (NJ) Detailed Profile - relocation, real estate, travel, jobs, hospitals, schools, crime, move, moving, houses news, sex offenders
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Jersey City is.... O-K. I almost lived in there but it's still expensive if you want to live in "good area" of JC. Most of it is very ghetto... it's full of hispanic people (not that I have a problem with them but they're "poor") and there are many sex offenders around the blocks. In my town - there's only 1. If you recall in news from last year.... there was a major bust on worst pedophile offender in JC.

JC's still going thru major transformation to SLOWLY phase "poor people" out but it takes a decade or so. JC is being rebuilt by NYC rich people because Bergen County is already overfilled by suburbs and families. NYC rich people want to have city-suburb hybrid so JC is it.
 
 
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