Posted on 04/24/2013 6:29:57 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
One of the first things you learn when living in New York is that what qualifies as wealthy somewhere else seems barely middle-class here. On the Upper West Side, where I live, it’s hard not to feel as if Manhattan is impossibly expensive for young professionals.
The average nondoorman, one-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood rents for about $2,500 a month. Oatmeal-raisin cookies at Levain Bakery cost $4 each. A pair of sensible, unstylish walking flats from Harry’s Shoes can set you back $480. I suppose, by comparison, that the $198 chef’s menu at Jean-Georges doesn’t sound so ridiculous.
New Yorkers assume that we live in the most expensive city in the country, and cost-of-living indexes tend to back up that assertion. But those measures are built around the typical American’s shopping habits, which don’t really apply to the typical New Yorker — especially not college-educated New Yorkers with annual household incomes in the top income quintile, or around $100,000.
According to a recent study by Jessie Handbury, an economist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, people in different income classes do indeed have markedly different purchasing habits. That may not be surprising, but once you account for these different preferences, it turns out that living in New York is actually a relative bargain for the wealthy.
While compiling her research, Handbury looked at Nielsen shopping data for 40,000 American households, across more than 500 food categories, with details on everything from organic labeling to salt content. Remarkably, she found that for households earning above $100,000, grocery costs are 20 percent lower in cities with a high per-capita income (like New York) than in cities with a low per-capita income (like New Orleans).
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Texas District 7 of the United States House of Representatives is a Congressional district that serves a small area of western Harris County. As of the 2000 census, District 7 comprises 651,620 people.
One of the wealthiest districts in the state, District 7 includes several upscale areas of western Houston, wealthy enclaves of Houston, one incorporated suburb, large areas of unincorporated suburbs, and the heavily Democratic Neartown area. The district was one of the state's first to elect a Republican to office and is now one of the most Republican districts in Texas. It has not elected a Democrat to office since 1967, before districts of equal population were required. Republican John Culberson has represented the district since 2001.
It must be rich people effete peer pressure that keeps anyone in NYC.
Wall street is a museum.
There is nothing in NYC that can not be done elsewhere, better and cheeper. The only “industry” in NYC is left wing propaganda and parades with character balloons.
However, the suburbs are about as conservative as you can get, exceeded in this only by the outlying rural areas. Needless to say, it is in the suburbs where the most active growth is occurring.
I hit NYC regularly and have become accustomed to “sticker shock”.In fact,during the red hot real estate market I considered buying an investment property on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.A 700 sq ft condo/coop went for at *least* $700K back then.Yikes!
And show business. But I repeat what you said....
You probably could.Don't know if you've ever been there but I must admit that there's a certain "excitement" to that city that I've never found anywhere else in my travels.Also,salaries are much higher there than elsewhere.Parking cars can make you $20/hr there.
I know where the lady is coming from. A decent pair of irrigation boots cost me upwards of twenty bucks at the feed store. I wonder if she’s considered buying her sensible walking flats at Big5 or WalMart?
Her rent is more than my mortgage (almost 10 acres of land, a single family dwelling of 2,500 sq. feet, one story). I’ll take that, the lightning bugs, deer, feral hogs, and all sorts of bugs/birds over NYC every day, and twice on Sundays.
The article is too drole to get through,
I’ll just ad a widely known stat,
A double income no kids (DINK) married couple in Manhattan can make $158,000 a year in gross income and still qualify for housing subsidies.
and some Co-Ops in east Harlem now cost over $600/sqft , and they don’t accept potential buyers who makes less than $350k/yr.
RE: I wonder if she’s considered buying her sensible walking flats at Big5 or WalMart?
Good luck trying to find a Wal-Mart in NYC.
They wanted to open one near the city but the protests against it were so overwhelming (opposition to non-union labor) that they decided not to.
The nearest Wal-Mart is I think in Nassau County, Long Island ( but then, you’ll have to drive from the city ).
It’s possible to get pretty much all the luxury goods available in NYC in other large cities in the US. Furthermore, with online shopping, many of these goods are available anywhere in the country without the cost of developing networks of distributors.
However, the suburbs are about as conservative as you can get, exceeded in this only by the outlying rural areas. Needless to say, it is in the suburbs where the most active growth is occurring.
There's been lots of growth inside Loop 610. Lot's of high end condos have been built there in the last 20 years.
True, but many areas such as West University Place and parts of Memorial, while inside the “loop,” are reliably suburban, both culturally and politically. Of course, you always have your limousine liberals, but energy is a big industry in Houston and those people tend to be more conservatively aligned than not.
Well, heck. They probably don’t have a lot of feed stores either. And I guess you wouldn’t need irrigation boots if you don’t have to set pipe. This NYC doesn’t sound like a very well-developed place.
NY State is struggling, with Upstate burdened with real estate and other taxes that its residents and businesses can’t afford.
NYC is thriving, with if anything, more and more of a concentration of professionals and the upper class. The merely lower- to middle-middle class increasingly move out beyond the City’s core. Manhattan itself is incredibly expensive except to its Hispanic north and only the blocks closest to the projects in Spanish Harlem, etc..
It is in a way easier to be rich or poor in NYC than middle class, but it still draws in many young college graduates who are happy to live in a shoebox for the experience of being part of an incredibly vibrant city.
He’s actually got it wrong. Fall and spring are NYC’s two best seasons. Lots of people, except for tourists, like to get away in the summer; and then some people, especially if they are old or mega-rich, head out for the winter too.
That actually isn’t very true about NYC. It’s the best place to be for finance, fashion, a lot of the arts and entertainment, etc.. What’s the ax you’ve got to grind against the City?
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