How bad is the cost of living in NYC? I know real estate is much more expensive but is everythng else as well?

I ask because on FB a friend of mine was rambling on about how rough it was in the law profession. This is the case evidently even for people like him who went to a top tier law school and joined a Big Law firm where the starting salary is $160K. And my friend is far beyond a first year associate. He's on partner track.

So I pointed out that a starting salary of $160K is nothing to complain about whereupon someone else claimed that in a "primary city like New York" $160K isn't very much at all. I responded that that salary put you in the top 2% of all salary earners in the US and if someone couldn't do well on that amount of cash the problem might be more with their spending and less with their income. And then things got ugly..

But I am curious to know, especially from people who have lived in NYC and lived elsewhere, is someone earning $160K doing pretty well for themselves in NYC, especially if they have no kids or spouse?

Well, you know I'm normally the first guy to scream about gentrification and how the little guy is getting squeezed out of New York. But if a single person complains about not being able to get by on $160k a year, even in Manhattan, then I'd really like five minutes alone with that person.

And this is exactly what I'm talking about. These people who are complaining are obviously transplants to this city. Guaranteed. Just ask a single person who grew up in the South Bronx or East New York if they can't get by on $160k a year?

Or better yet, get someone from Wisconsin to complain to someone from one of those neighborhoods that they can't get by on $160k a year. See what happens .

Ha! Good point about the South Bronx/East NY areas.

Lilo, if you go here:

http://money.cnn.com/calculator/pf/cost-of-living/

you will find a way to compare how far $160k will go in NY vs. other cities. BUT: Manhattan is the big hummer. Living in Manhattan is way, way more expensive than living in, say, Queens, particularly real estate and groceries.

There you go. But I'll just add that a good portion of Brooklyn is also headed in that direction .

Thanks TB. Useful site.

I get the feeling that, before long, they'll turn the housing projects into high-end condos and co-ops.

Yup. By the time his four years are up, a lot of lower income folks are going to be mighty disappointed in de Blasio. He's just as cozy with the real estate lobby as the rest of them. But he hides it well by making a spectacle of chasing the horses out of Central Park .

All my kids are doing pretty well.

My oldest daughter is not a lawyer she owns house in Belle Harbour about 60 yards from the beach. She makes around 160 thousand all she does is complain about money. My mother used to say some people like to cry with a loaf of bread under their arm. She is like that.

My son lives in Brooklyn he is in sales. He is a pretty wealthy guy but he won't buy a house. He rents he does not want to be tied down to and area in case he needs to relocate.

My other daughter the communist lives in Berlin, Germany. She is tge smartest book smart of our little group. She lives well her apartment over looks the canal.

I live in Mill Basin Brooklyn. Not that close to the water in a nice corner house.

My mother would have loved my house. But never saw it the amazing thing about her. When her abusive husband died. Instead of being happy about it like her kids. She did not want to live any more without the bozo.

Which made her another fucking idiot.

I think you can live pretty well in manhattan on 75 thousand a month if you live on the west side? But that 75 thousand has to be tax free

I'd give my left nut to be 20 years younger and $120k richer to spend the next 20 years in Manhattan.

...then, of course, I'd get the hell out and be peaceful in the 'burbs!

Lilo,

what your buddy isn't telling you, but what we're able to see reading between the lines, is that lot of fast track professionals in the city go into debt keeping up appearances.
Living in the "right" zip code, driving the "right" car,etc etc, costs a lot of money in the city

Also, unless he comes from money....he's probably not done paying off college and law school loans


New York, New York big city of dreams /
and everything in new york ain't always what is seems/

New York is ridiculously expensive in ways that people don't think about. Even eating at a McDonald's in Manhattan is more expensive than eating in one in NJ or the suburbs. Not that the tristate area in general is any great bargain either. Property taxes, utilities, auto insurance, homeowners insurance, housing costs, it's all more expensive in NY.

When I was in economic development, I met once with a relocation specialist. I asked her what was the most expensive location in the country. She told me the tristate area. She said that in most locations, once you get 45 minutes to an hour outside of the major city, like Manhattan, the prices of real estate start to drop tremendously. Not in the NY/NJ/CT area. Those are some of the most expensive places, Bergen, Westchester and Fairfield Counties.

Does anyone recognize the house with the awnings on the right?

[img]http://thenypost.files.wordpress.com/201...=480&crop=1[/img]

About 800 ‘zombie’ homes plague city neighborhoods

By Kate Briquelet June 29, 2014 | 2:12am

About 800 ‘zombie’ homes plague city neighborhoods
St. Albans has one of the highest concentration of abandoned and foreclosed homes in the city.

Brooklyn and Queens are plagued with “zombie” properties — homes abandoned by their owners and banks that fail to complete the foreclosure process.

New York currently has 807 of the deserted homes, which can waste away for years as lenders fail to maintain them.

Brooklyn has 250 zombie properties, with the largest numbers in East New York, Cypress Hills and Ocean Hill, according to ZIP code data from RealtyTrac. Queens has 220 derelict houses, with high numbers in St. Albans, Jamaica and Ozone Park.

Vicky Thomas of St. Albans has lived next to a zombie home on 200th Street for three years. Earlier this month, a new owner finally began to stabilize the building.

“We had kids hanging out, squatters in there, and they even tried to turn it into a brothel,” Thomas said. “Johns were parading girls into the back yard. It was torture.”

The Bronx has 181 zombie homes, Staten Island has 121 and Manhattan has 35.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman pushed a bill that would force mortgage holders to care for the properties. It failed to pass this legislative session.

“Zombie homes are a drain on families and communities and place undue burden on thinly stretched municipal resources,” said Melissa Grace, an AG spokeswoman. “We look forward to working with the legislature . . . next session.”

http://nypost.com/2014/06/29/about-800-zombie-homes-plague-city-neighborhoods/

There are actually more vacant, abandoned houses in America than there are homeless people. Maybe this should be in the head scratcher thread.

If you consider Manhattan the city you do not need a car there.

Bushwick had more abandoned buildings in Brooklyn then any where years ago.

We used to go in with a heating oil truck and syphone the heating oil from abandon buildings. Then sell the heating oil to a local heating oil company at a discount. Then they delivered it to their customers who paid top dollar.

Did that for 5 years easy money. All you need is a plan to make a lot of money.

Between 2001 and 2004, I worked in downtown Manhattan and commuted from a northwest suburb. My commute cost about $4,000 a year between train and ferry. Tack on NYC income tax...but still cheaper than living in the city (Manhattan) where there are no Wal-Marts, Sam's Clubs, Costco, Home Depot or Lowes. I remember buying a cup of soup for $5.00, and that was the cheap stuff.

That's another often overlooked point (and an EXCELLENT one, MC ). Because there isn't even the pretense of bargain shopping in Manhattan anymore, especially below 96th Street.

There is a Costco in manhattan on a Hun 16 street near Pleasant ave. Two block walk from Rao's. That where I park during the feast.

I think real estate taxes are less in Brooklyn then in New Jersey.

I know, that's why I went out of my way to say "especially below 96th Street."

We usually shop at the Harlem Costco because we don't have one in the Bronx. It's either New Rochelle or 116th. And believe it or not, I find it easier to get in and out of Upper Manhattan most of the time, especially on the weekends. On a Sunday morning, it's only a fifteen minute drive from Throggs Neck.

Does Manhattan have any thrift stores? (And I mean REAL thrift stores....not 'thrift' stores where you pay 800 dollars for a used Armani suit)


Also, it might be interesting to look on youtube at some of the apartments in Manhattan. You can live in a closet a few blocks from Times Square for 900+ a month.

Also, as a part time math tutor, I've heard stories about tutors in Manhattan getting $120 per hour to do SAT tutoring....that's fucking high school stuff. I tutor at the college level and feel bad about charging someone 20 bucks an hour.

Are there still rent controlled apartments in NYC?

Then not really. The Village used to be loaded with them. Today they call themselves "vintage clothing stores," which just means used, and they charge you 500 bucks for a used leisure suit from 1975 .


And even those are on the way out. Those old sro units are disappearing by the day.


Manhattan academia. Who can explain it?

I don't live in NYC (obviously) but I did read on a question and answer type site A while back that there are rent controlled apartments in a part of the Bronx called morissania ( or something like that). Apparently the place is a real shithole.

Of course. But the real estate lobby is slowly but surely bribing them out of existence.


There are still loads of rent controlled units in all of the outer boroughs, not just the Bronx. But unfortunately, yeah, Morrisania is home to the poorest zip code in the United States.