look at the NYC real estate prices. They keep going up.
Somebody is paying those insane prices.
Many of the people paying insane prices are buying second (or third, or fourth) homes. As long as you spend <185 days a year in the city, you are a non-resident and aren’t subject to New York State or City income taxes except upon your actual salary for a job in New York City, and the property taxes they do pay are actually quite modest (for historical reasons, New York City chose to rely more upon local income tax and less upon property tax for its municipal revenue).
Of the rest — well, it has always been crushingly expensive to live full time in Manhattan. No one has ever done it because it’s cost effective. You do it because all your friends are in Manhattan, or because you really hate to commute, or you’re in a two-income family and it’s a pain both of you to commute, or you’re rich as sin.