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Not true at all. I live in NYC, and basic things like food and toilet paper cost nearly 100% more than they did in Bumpisville, MS. Services like house cleaning and child care cost 200% more. It's not just real estate, although that in particular does cost more like 700% more.
None of this is true. I lived over 10 years in NYC, and this is totally wrong.
How on earth are you paying twice the price for basic things like food and toilet paper? Where are you shopping? At Barneys or Bergdorf Goodman or something? The prices at Target or Home Depot or Costco in NYC are the exact same as the prices in Mississippi. Groceries, if anything, are a bit cheaper, because of all the ethnic grocers in constant competition. No WalMart can top a Brooklyn ethnic greengrocer in produce prices or quality.
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Originally Posted by Blimp
I've found a comfortable middle-upper-middle class (to live without any financial stress) salary is $55,000 in Bumpisville, $80,000 in a Santa Fe, and $115,000 in a NYC.
None of this is true either. The salary is the same in all three cities. The difference is that you are spending the salary totally differently. In Mississippi you will need two cars, and yard maintenance, and lots of home supplies, like tractors. You will need a patio, and garage, and driveway. In NYC you need none of this, but you pay much more for real estate.
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Originally Posted by Blimp
And even then, making twice as much in NYC, you'll be living in a one bedroom condo without being able to afford children or child care whereas the Bumpisville person making half as much will have five bedrooms and as much cheap childcare as he/she could ever want.
Of course the house will be much bigger in Mississippi, because no one wants to live there. That's purely a function of demand. But a five-bedroom house in Mississippi isn't "living better" than a two-bedroom in Brooklyn. It's just more space.
There is no automatic "living better" by just adding space. If I magically doubled the size of every room in my house, it would do nothing positive for my quality of life. It would just add costs. But, if I moved my house to Tuscany, it would do massive things for my quality of life, even if the rooms shrank by 30%. Quality of life is unrelated to house size.
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Originally Posted by Blimp
The real estate may (or may not) appreciate more in NYC, but you're also paying condo fees the whole while that will be $600 to $1500 a month. There are no condo fees in Bumpisville or Santa Fe, since you'll own an entire free-standing house. Or if you do have condo fees (in a more upscale town like Santa Fe) they will be $250 instead of $800 monthly for the same sized condo.
You are paying the exact same for a single family house. There's no difference. You just pay to 40 different companies, or have to do it yourself. A single family home, costs at least 10k annually in basic maintenance. It just isn't figured into your fixed monthly costs like with a condo/coop.
None of this is true. I lived over 10 years in NYC, and this is totally wrong.
How on earth are you paying twice the price for basic things like food and toilet paper? Where are you shopping? At Barneys or Bergdorf Goodman or something? The prices at Target or Home Depot or Costco in NYC are the exact same as the prices in Mississippi. Groceries, if anything, are a bit cheaper, because of all the ethnic grocers in constant competition. No WalMart can top a Brooklyn ethnic greengrocer in produce prices or quality.
I don't know about paying twice as much... but things ARE more expensive in New York than in Mississippi. Food is not cheaper in Brooklyn than Mississippi. Quite the contrary. I posted a link comparing the cost of living in Huntsville, AL to San Jose, CA. If you want to go to that site and plug in New York, NY, and Anytown, MS, knock yourself out.
And actually, sometimes things *are* more expensive at chain places in different markets. The same meal at Subway might run you $7 in El Dorado, Arkansas and $11 in New York City.
I don't know about paying twice as much... but things ARE more expensive in New York than in Mississippi. Food is not cheaper in Brooklyn than Mississippi. Quite the contrary. I posted a link comparing the cost of living in Huntsville, AL to San Jose, CA. If you want to go to that site and plug in New York, NY, and Anytown, MS, knock yourself out.
And actually, sometimes things *are* more expensive at chain places in different markets. The same meal at Subway might run you $7 in El Dorado, Arkansas and $11 in New York City.
Or they pull the trick where it's the same price but different amount.
Otherwise, I would expect that certain items, like beverages or chips, are priced more to offset the difference in keeping the price of the main items similar to other parts of the country.
How on earth are you paying twice the price for basic things like food and toilet paper? Where are you shopping? At Barneys or Bergdorf Goodman or something? The prices at Target or Home Depot or Costco in NYC are the exact same as the prices in Mississippi.
So you know that most companies base their rate of pay based on location, i.e. live in a high COL and the pay scale is higher. Why don't you think the same holds true when companies charge for goods and services? I can think of several categories of items we sell that have their price set according to tiers, which are based on location. Mdse can be quit a bit cheaper in podunk MS just because it's MS
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Originally Posted by NOLA101
In Mississippi you will need two cars, and yard maintenance, and lots of home supplies, like tractors. You will need a patio, and garage, and driveway. In NYC you need none of this, but you pay much more for real estate.
Pssst, MS has apartments and condos too. Not to mention my home upkeep is a long way from 10k a year, maybe half that, even if you average in the cost of a new roof and a new driveway every 15 years.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NOLA101
There is no automatic "living better" by just adding space. If I magically doubled the size of every room in my house, it would do nothing positive for my quality of life. It would just add costs. But, if I moved my house to Tuscany, it would do massive things for my quality of life, even if the rooms shrank by 30%. Quality of life is unrelated to house size.
That is you, not everyone feels the same. MY quality of life has much to do with room sizes, and more importantly lot size. I don't care if it's the most wonderful city in the world, if I ever again have to live in tiny rooms with people above, or below and on both sides, so close that I can hear every sneeze, burp and flush of the toilet I will lose it. Your paradise is my hell, so yes, for some people adding space improves quality of life.
I find it interesting that they combined "New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA". The shear number of people in this category makes the sample size WAY different than any other grouping. Numbers 1 through 8 all have populations in the 1M to 5M range. The NY/NJ/PA grouping has nearly 19M Both NY and NJ taken alone, each have more population than the other groups, and the border of PA is an hour away from NYC with no traffic. I wonder how different the study would be if NYC was by itself, as was NJ since they both have more than enough population to classify them as their own areas. If you can take 19 million people and rank them 9th in affluence against groups consisting of 1 million, that's pretty impressive.
Did the residents of Bumpisville, MS get a deal on the Mayweather-Pacquio fight, or did they have to pay the same hundred bucks?
Also, the Dollar Tree is always the Dollar Tree. It's not the Dollar and a half Tree some places and The Dollar Tree everywhere else.
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