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.
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.
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.