Current Events > In all seriousness, how viable is it to live in NYC when you're middle class?

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I just saw the new movie "Hustlers" which is about a bunch of people making it big in NYC. They have jobs such that $100,000/year is chump change to them. I learned that a lot of people in NYC can make $100,000 or more per month.

That is just hard for me to wrap my head around because $100,000 for me is still a decent amount of money. The cost of living just has to be staggering, and I don't suppose an ordinary person can easily make a living in downtown Manhattan. So if you're middle class, are you better off staying out of NYC, or is it sustainable if you somehow find a way?
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Bronx is still pretty cheep
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You can live there easily with half if you're single and don't need to live in the "posh" areas. Many people do that with families, though that's squeezing it nowadays.

When I lived in Manhattan back in 2012, seeing what my friends got for their $3k/mth in rent (a 2 bedroom shoebox which could just fit a matress in the bedroom with no build ins) but on 43rd/3rd, I'd say don't expect great accommodation.

I was fortunate that my company put me up in a 1 bedroom corporate housing apartment at midtown near our office but heard it was $8k per month in rent.

But either way, rent is crazy. Other things in everyday spending seemed to have reasonable pricing though.

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not really realistic. maybe in the hood but even that is ridiculous these days.
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gloBal enemy posted...

When I lived in Manhattan back in 2012, seeing what my friends got for their $3k/mth in rent (a 2 bedroom shoebox which could just fit a matress in the bedroom with no build ins) but on 43rd/3rd, I'd say don't expect great accommodation.

I was fortunate that my company put me up in a 1 bedroom corporate housing apartment at midtown near our office but heard it was $8k per month in rent.

But either way, rent is crazy. Other things in everyday spending seemed to have reasonable pricing though.

Manhattan is one of five parts of NYC dude. There are apartments in Manhattan that cost several million. Not comparable to the rest of the city.

InfinityMonster posted...

Manhattan is one of five parts of NYC dude. There are apartments in Manhattan that cost several million. Not comparable to the rest of the city.

True.

I only know that area because my office was on Madison Ave so they put us up nearby.

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most people seem to think that nyc = manhattan, but manhattan is actually just one out of 5 sections of nyc (called boroughs). heres a map:

https://nycmap360.com/carte/image/en/nyc-borough-map.png

all the sections outside of manhattan have a lot of diversity in terms of income, lots of ppl commute into manhattan every day for work from queens or brooklyn or w/e. staten island less so but they have a train they can take into manhattan iirc. if you want more living space and want to get away from the city you can move outside nyc to long island (that grey part next to queens) or north new jersey

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Okay, so Manhattan is out of reach for almost everybody, but the other parts of NYC are fine?
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