NYC's minimum for "middle-class" a six-figure income

[Saddle Bronc 124]

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/02/0..._six_figur.html

N.Y.C. so costly you need to earn six figures to make middle class

BY Elizabeth Hays

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

2009/02/06 13:04

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.”

[Yoink 7]

thats why if you can make it here you can make it anywhere... its up to you

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

This is precisely why NJ Transit's NEC line, which runs from Trenton to NYC through Mercer, Middlesex and Union counties, is so packed during rush hour. Try getting on an NY-bound train at Metro Park at 830am, good luck if you can even get in, much less sit down. All those people don't live in the culturally dead suburbs of Jerz because it rocks out here, it's because Manhattan is unaffordable to all but the wealthiest fat cats.

[Yoink 7]

This is precisely why NJ Transit's NEC line, which runs from Trenton to NYC through Mercer, Middlesex and Union counties, is so packed during rush hour. Try getting on an NY-bound train at Metro Park at 830am, good luck if you can even get in, much less sit down. All those people don't live in the culturally dead suburbs of Jerz because it rocks out here, it's because Manhattan is unaffordable to all but the wealthiest fat cats.

or try any peak Metro-North train inbound on the Hudson line

[Saddle Bronc 124]

This is precisely why NJ Transit's NEC line, which runs from Trenton to NYC through Mercer, Middlesex and Union counties, is so packed during rush hour. Try getting on an NY-bound train at Metro Park at 830am, good luck if you can even get in, much less sit down. All those people don't live in the culturally dead suburbs of Jerz because it rocks out here, it's because Manhattan is unaffordable to all but the wealthiest fat cats.

Are you saying that NYC-bound trains from Joisey resemble (the infamously overloaded) commuter trains of Mumbai?

[Kajikit 65]

I don't know why anyone wants to live in New York at all - prices of everything there are grossly unrealistic! South Florida's bad enough...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

This is precisely why NJ Transit's NEC line, which runs from Trenton to NYC through Mercer, Middlesex and Union counties, is so packed during rush hour. Try getting on an NY-bound train at Metro Park at 830am, good luck if you can even get in, much less sit down. All those people don't live in the culturally dead suburbs of Jerz because it rocks out here, it's because Manhattan is unaffordable to all but the wealthiest fat cats.

Are you saying that NYC-bound trains from Joisey resemble (the infamously overloaded) commuter trains of Mumbai?

Not that bad. Americans are much more into their personal space, you know how it is.

[Yoink 7]

This is precisely why NJ Transit's NEC line, which runs from Trenton to NYC through Mercer, Middlesex and Union counties, is so packed during rush hour. Try getting on an NY-bound train at Metro Park at 830am, good luck if you can even get in, much less sit down. All those people don't live in the culturally dead suburbs of Jerz because it rocks out here, it's because Manhattan is unaffordable to all but the wealthiest fat cats.

Are you saying that NYC-bound trains from Joisey resemble (the infamously overloaded) commuter trains of Mumbai?

Tokyo...

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I don't know why anyone wants to live in New York at all - prices of everything there are grossly unrealistic! South Florida's bad enough...

It's a fun place to live, if you can afford it.

[Yoink 7]

I don't know why anyone wants to live in New York at all - prices of everything there are grossly unrealistic! South Florida's bad enough...

It's a fun place to live, if you can afford it.

The best place...

[Saddle Bronc 124]

I don't know why anyone wants to live in New York at all - prices of everything there are grossly unrealistic! South Florida's bad enough...

I guess same reason people want to live in DC-area, specifically in City, Arlington, Old Town Alexandria or Bethesda (all of which are pricier than SoFL but less than Queens).

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I love Bethesda!

Can't afford it but it's awesome.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

This is precisely why NJ Transit's NEC line, which runs from Trenton to NYC through Mercer, Middlesex and Union counties, is so packed during rush hour. Try getting on an NY-bound train at Metro Park at 830am, good luck if you can even get in, much less sit down. All those people don't live in the culturally dead suburbs of Jerz because it rocks out here, it's because Manhattan is unaffordable to all but the wealthiest fat cats.

Are you saying that NYC-bound trains from Joisey resemble (the infamously overloaded) commuter trains of Mumbai?

Tokyo...

Tokyo's subway was even in 1970's a vast improvement over Mumbai's Suburban trains--and the disparity has worsened since.

[Yoink 7]

Bethesda is a great laid out modern city... very nice

I love the DC area

This is precisely why NJ Transit's NEC line, which runs from Trenton to NYC through Mercer, Middlesex and Union counties, is so packed during rush hour. Try getting on an NY-bound train at Metro Park at 830am, good luck if you can even get in, much less sit down. All those people don't live in the culturally dead suburbs of Jerz because it rocks out here, it's because Manhattan is unaffordable to all but the wealthiest fat cats.

Are you saying that NYC-bound trains from Joisey resemble (the infamously overloaded) commuter trains of Mumbai?

Tokyo...

Tokyo's subway was even in 1970's a vast improvement over Mumbai's Suburban trains--and the disparity has worsened since.

I am sure there is no comparing Tokyo to Mumbai... but those morning rush commutes in Tokyo are full of middle-class, suit and briefcase toting Men that are inadvertantly gropping eachother

[Caladan 19]

My sister lives in Alexandria and loves it. The area's nuts, though, pricewise.