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Yes, whole towns are defined that way. If you don't know any towns that are considered upper middle as a whole, then I don't know what to tell you. There are certainly plenty with that reputation. Why would a town need a segment of working class folks to function? I'm not following you.
I am not following you either - there are lower income families living in high falutin' towns like Muttontown, Port Washington, Great Neck, Sands Point, et just as there are uber rich people living in sections of Baldwin, Merrick, Bellmore and Lynbrook - so where exactly are you drawing the line between "upper" middle and "regular" middle class or even "lower" middle class? Port Washington's Manorhaven section has families on public assistance/Section 8 - so does that make PW a lower middle income town?
And where on LI is a 500k home going to have taxes that are less than 9k a year? The majority of 500k+ homes haves taxes STARTING at 9500 a year. What point are you trying to make, maybe I'm missing it.
Even homes that cost $9K or $10K per year - no one has any business purchasing a home if you can not comfortably carry the costs of ownership (principal,interest, insurance and taxes + utilities). The point I'm trying to make is one can not just look at homes to determine what is upper middle class and what is not. True determination would be to review their annual federal/state tax return and annual personal financial statement detailing inflow/outflow and discretionary income - nearly impossible to obtain, though one can gauge by occupation, length of employment, time lived in neighborhood, spending/purchasing habits.
That is exactly how I feel, LegalDiva. As I said earlier, my husband I are both professionals with upper middle class earnings, but are looking at homes in Levittown mostly,followed by Plainview/Old Bethpage, Merrick, and others. Some of these towns are pricier than others, but they have one thing in common: good schools with good special ed, because that is what we need. As long as we can find a decent house that can fit our whole family in one of these towns and not make us house poor, we don't care if we are in a hoity toity town or not. Quality of life is a lot more important.
We are ALL part of the 99%. I find it laughable to read these distinctions between 'middle' and 'upper middle'. Yes, the houses in Cold Spring Harbor and the ones in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich school district will blow away most of the modest 3-5 bedroom homes in Lynbrook, Levittown, East Meadow, etc - but at the end of the day, who really effin' cares? I sure don't. People should buy what they can afford, not over-leverage themselves to the point where they can't afford to have a 2 car household or furniture for every room because they are so house poor after the mortgage payment and taxes. It is a problem I see only in Long Island. I grew up in Queens and I never saw people go so crazy over the "hierarchy" of towns when house-hunting here on Island or so obsessed with accumulation of material wealth. I tell people where I live and some people just behind my back, and assume my husband and I are dirt poor..when in reality, my husband's mortgage can be paid off 3 times over with what we have in our combined savings account, and we carry NO debt other than the mortgage and have no trouble paying our tax bill in full twice a year without any worries. To be constantly living paycheck to paycheck just so you have the "privilege" of saying you live in X school district or in a fancy town, is just absurd and an unhealthy way to live, IMHO.
We should get together and write a book - "How to Live, Prosper and Thrive in Long Island"
Of course, the realtors will definitely not be a fan of deleveraging, nor will the banks, contractors and taxing authorities.
I am not following you either - there are lower income families living in high falutin' towns like Muttontown, Port Washington, Great Neck, Sands Point, et just as there are uber rich people living in sections of Baldwin, Merrick, Bellmore and Lynbrook - so where exactly are you drawing the line between "upper" middle and "regular" middle class or even "lower" middle class? Port Washington's Manorhaven section has families on public assistance/Section 8 - so does that make PW a lower middle income town?
We are talking averages, not a few outliers determining the reputation of the town. Get real.
living on the north shore has given me a whole new perspective. i wonder how many of the families driving matching beemers or a bentley and a Range Rover lease them in order to keep up and are a few psychecks away from insolvency. everyone can't possibly be pulling in seven figure salaries.
We are ALL part of the 99%. I find it laughable to read these distinctions between 'middle' and 'upper middle'. Yes, the houses in Cold Spring Harbor and the ones in the Oyster Bay-East Norwich school district will blow away most of the modest 3-5 bedroom homes in Lynbrook, Levittown, East Meadow, etc - but at the end of the day, who really effin' cares? I sure don't. People should buy what they can afford, not over-leverage themselves to the point where they can't afford to have a 2 car household or furniture for every room because they are so house poor after the mortgage payment and taxes. It is a problem I see only in Long Island. I grew up in Queens and I never saw people go so crazy over the "hierarchy" of towns when house-hunting here on Island or so obsessed with accumulation of material wealth. I tell people where I live and some people just behind my back, and assume my husband and I are dirt poor..when in reality, my husband's mortgage can be paid off 3 times over with what we have in our combined savings account, and we carry NO debt other than the mortgage and have no trouble paying our tax bill in full twice a year without any worries. To be constantly living paycheck to paycheck just so you have the "privilege" of saying you live in X school district or in a fancy town, is just absurd and an unhealthy way to live, IMHO.
living on the north shore has given me a whole new perspective. i wonder how many of the families driving matching beemers or a bentley and a Range Rover lease them in order to keep up and are a few paychecks away from insolvency. everyone can't possibly be pulling in seven figure salaries.
Yup - Leasing, 5/1 Arms, payment plans FHA (have another term for it but we have to keep it PC here) - its all part of the great American Steal - Live the life of luxury as the chain tightens around your neck, when the credit is cut off, life as you know it evaporates before your eyes and you are found out by your neighbors.
It's alot easier to handle a $350 a month lease - you find out who owns and who leases by how they maintain it. The surest sign are those cars where premium gas is required and the fill up on regular, claiming its the same thing - it is not (higher compression engines require premium to run optimally). Same thing with the ARMS - I can buy more of a home because the payments are lower - that works if a) you actually know something about finance, b) you have sufficient assets to back your plan, c) your income would easily cover the highest expected payment given the cap figure. It stops working when you don't know how to balance your checkbook, let alone figure out amortization and interest charge calculation, you have no assets or you have no income.
What I'm really interested in finding out is how many are able to save anything at the end of the month? Of those who do save are they able to save more than the recently released figure of 4.7% of income? If your property taxes increase at a rate of 4%, your income is stagnant/declining and you can only save 4.7% - you are barely keeping your head above water before inflation - after inflation, you have sunk below the surface.
living on the north shore has given me a whole new perspective. i wonder how many of the families driving matching beemers or a bentley and a Range Rover lease them in order to keep up and are a few psychecks away from insolvency. everyone can't possibly be pulling in seven figure salaries.
Can't speak to the Bentley or RR leases, but you can lease a Beemer for about $469 a month. My boss just did. My car loan on my Mercury was $425 at 3.25%. Thank goodness it's paid for and being 10 years old still has low mileage - relatively speaking of course.
Most of my friends in GH, SC and GL own Toyotas now that they've gotten rid of the mini-vans needed for the kids.
yeah i have a paid minivan and small car but i see a land rover in every other driveway
Picked this up from their website:
Since the Land Rover LR4, Range Rover Sport and Range Rover each have a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR)** of between 6,000 and 14,000 lbs, they qualify for an accelerated tax depreciation schedule. When used for business over 50% of the time, they can even be depreciated at a faster rate than other luxury vehicles.
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It is a problem I see only in Long Island. I grew up in Queens and I never saw people go so crazy over the "hierarchy" of towns when house-hunting here on Island or so obsessed with accumulation of material wealth. I tell people where I live and some people just 
behind my back, and assume my husband and I are dirt poor..when in reality, my husband's mortgage can be paid off 3 times over with what we have in our combined savings account, and we carry NO debt other than the mortgage and have no trouble paying our tax bill in full twice a year without any worries. To be constantly living paycheck to paycheck just so you have the "privilege" of saying you live in X school district or in a fancy town, is just absurd and an unhealthy way to live, IMHO.
