<p>D lives in Manhatten and wouldn’t live anywhere else at this point in her life. She, living alone, has a large one bedroom apartment on the UES about half a block from Central Park- reservoir area. She is doing very well, needless to say for a 2 1/2 yr after college grad. Her bf is planning to move in with her in June. That is when he starts his full time job after his post doc. Between the two of them, they will are very, very well off.</p>
<p>I think my D is living very well. My H sees it differently. He is an economist and points out the taxes, the cost of living in Manhattan and thinks she is just middle class. </p>
<p>I would love to live in my D’s apartment upon retirement. It is in the heart of Manhatten, a half block from the park, two blocks from the MET and a few blocks from the Guginheim.</p>
<p>Unfortunately our suburban home isn’t large enough that we’ll ever afford to move into the city. At one time I really thought that could be a retirement plan. Now my plan would be to buy a condo right at a Metro North stop if I stopped wanting a yard.</p>
<p>This is interesting. I grew up in Brooklyn and Queens, and my kids grew up about 45 miles outside of San Francisco. I THINK my husband and I are relatively better off than our parents were, but it’s so had to compare. I dont think it would have crossed my parents minds to try to have a family in Manhatten any more than it would cross mine to do it in San Francisco. I felt fortunate growing up, and I think our kids do too.</p>
<p>If you look at the curbed.com newsletters, you may be able to get one sent daily for your city. I like to look at the Detroit one. It’s a kind of porn: mansions for somewhere between $150-300k. Problem is they’re in the city. Where I grew up in Bloomfield, house prices are normal levels, but that an affluent area. You can buy all sorts of condos or houses all over the nice ring of suburbs for a fraction of what they used to cost. My wife’s family knows that all too well.</p>
<p>I sometimes flip through the pictures of these mansions. Even ones in Grosse Pointe may be well under a million, which is less than a 2BR/2BA condo here. And they have incredible detail, the kind you can’t do these days. Ah, Detroit, the Paris of Southeastern Lower Michigan.</p>
<p>Have worked in Manhattan almost 25 years, but could never imagine living there. I need my yard and single family house to get away from the concrete jungle. I remember getting off the train on 9/11, I almost kissed the train platform when I got home. </p>
<p>Our little town is very un-NYC in that it looks the way it did 50 years ago in pictures. You would never know we are 30 minutes from Midtown. For us, it’s a great mix. There are a few houses in town for <$300k - quite small w 2-3 bedrooms & only 1 bath, but decent starter homes.</p>
<p>I’m downriver and housing does seem to be on the upswing. When the houses on either side of me and the one directly across the street from me were all abandoned/in foreclosure, it felt pretty bleak. Now that every house on the block is occupied again, it seems better. When I look at realtor.com, prices seem to be going upward. </p>
<p>The house next door to me is almost identical to my house, except I have a family room addition, adding about 280 sq. ft. That house was appraised at $185K in 2006. It went in auction for $30K after foreclosure. The young couple that bought it put about $25K into it for renovations. They got a real deal. I bought a few years before peak (11 years ago) but will still be under water for about another year, if things go like they seem to be going. There is hope :)</p>
<p>Perhaps they are the type of people whose spending habits automatically expand to consume all available income, no matter how much the income increases?</p>
<p>I loved living in Manhattan after college. It wasn’t always safe during the late 80s crack epidemic, but became increasingly safer the longer I lived there. (Giuliani’s crackdown on the squeegie guys and other quality of life infractions did help.) I loved the energy, being able to walk everywhere, having access to anything you could imagine, and not being chained to the train’s timetable. </p>
<p>oldmom4896 mentioned her daughter’s ability to get around and get exercise at the same time. I gained ten pounds the first month after I moved out of Manhattan. My commute home went from walking and perhaps subway to a quick walk to Grand Central and then sitting on the train for nearly an hour. All errands required the use of the car. It was an adjustment. </p>
<p>The NYT publishes a page in the Sunday Real Estate section showcasing five or so local properties for sale. My last Manhattan rental apt appeared for sale there a couple of weeks ago. We paid $805/month in 1995 and it was selling for $875K this month. Granted, our lease was rent-stabilized and I knew someone else in the same line in the building who paid $1600/month at the same time we were paying $800, but that is still an incredible run-up in 18 years.</p>
<p>As more rent-stabilized apartments become destabilized, or in the case of my old building, go co-op, there are fewer and fewer places for young college grads to live. It is increasingly becoming an island for the very wealthy. </p>
<p>We will be going in to the city tomorrow to visit the new math museum. I now return exhausted after a day in the city!</p>
<p>HI has a lot of very high cost neighborhoods and most of the single-family homes are north of $500K, with many of the nicer ones north of $1M (you can get a 50+ year old, 3 bedroom, 3 bath home with one car carport and single wall home on 5000 to 7500 square feet of land in an OK neighborhood). Unfortunately, wages are no where near what is needed for the high cost of living, which is why so many families have multiple generations living together. Many folks with college degrees and a decade or more of experience are earning $50K and consider themselves fortunate. </p>
<p>The good thing is that most of us don’t need to hear our homes much in the winter, though some folks do have space heaters, especially in the mountains or some of the over-air-conditioned office buildings.</p>
<p>Manhattan is where I want to work/live/maybe retire. Just like the city life and spending the rest of my life going to shows, music performances, broadway, theatres, etc.</p>
<p>The trick seems to be not having to work so hard that you dont have time to enjoy it. We like to think living where we do, allows us to hit “the city” like rockstars on the weekend.</p>
<p>I was born in Manhattan and lived a middle-class life there until I started school. My parents were able to afford an apartment on the UES on just my dad’s income. Like many families, my parents decided they wanted a house with a yard and good suburban schools, so we eventually moved out to Westchester. We had a nice-enough house on a beautiful piece of land in one of the most affluent suburbs–again, all on my father’s income as a mid-level ad agency manager.</p>
<p>To this day I still don’t think my dad understands how much things have changed, or how crushing housing costs are for most people who want to live in or near thriving metropolitan areas with good jobs, schools, culture, etc. I don’t know anyone who lives in the kind of places we did on one “regular” income.</p>
<p>$1.3 million for a 2 bedroom gets your a fixer upper, meaning estate condition for bathrooms and kitchen. Maintenance and tax would probably be 2500-3000/mon.</p>
<p>I love your post #55. My grandfather was a cab driver. My dad was a barber. They owned homes in SF. I think it would be impossible today for them to own homes in SF.</p>
<p>Interesting post.
My father was a union blue collar worker in the '50s and '60s. He had an eighth grade education. He and my mother built a new home in Monmouth county NJ on his income alone. Wouldn’t happen today.
Not even sure if there ARE such jobs available anymore…</p>
<p>My husband and I bought in northern NJ 30 years ago and probably could not buy in to our neighborhood now, even though we are both college educated. </p>
<p>Our son has a master’s and a good job in his field and would love to live in NYC…probably not going to happen. But he could probably buy here in NJ if he locates a wife! </p>
<p>I think it is possible to live a middle class life in Manhattan, but I would say that the starting point for middle class would be about $75 to 80,000 and only if one is frugal and lucky. By middle class, I would say that in addition to housing and food, the family could afford appropriate summer care for the kids - meaning not locking them alone in the apartment and praying to get home to feed them lunch every day - and having the occasional luxury like holiday presents and the occasional night out. If a family can’t have those things, it’s not middle class and maybe should leave Manhattan.</p>
<p>If you put all of the articles that the Times has published fretting about class distinctions back to back you’d have one hell of a lot of nonsense.</p>