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Median incomes in Upper East Side, Upper West Side or even Greenwich Village are well past $150k/yr, I'd say 2-5 times that. Let me put it this way my brother pays $4k/month for a 1-br rental apartment on the Upper East Side which is tiny (~600 square feet) and appears to have been remolded back in the 80's, by NYC standards his income of $300k+/yr is nothing to get excited about, I doubt he's even close to the median for Upper East Side.
To be blunt $130k/yr is the median income for for upscale suburb
You're way off. The median income of the Upper East Side is $98k/year. However, the Upper East Side has more singles and fewer children so it's not exactly comparable to a wealthy Texas suburb.
There are few census tracts with a median income above $200k+/year near Central Park in the Upper East Side, but most tracts are not well past $150k/year
In any case, if the OP considers quality of life having a home with lots of space then NYC will be a big downgrade. Even suburban homes in better towns tend to be older and smaller than nice Texas suburbs. If the OP doesn't care that much, than the downgrade will be much smaller.
You're way off. The median income of the Upper East Side is $98k/year. However, the Upper East Side has more singles and fewer children so it's not exactly comparable to a wealthy Texas suburb.
There are few census tracts with a median income above $200k+/year near Central Park in the Upper East Side, but most tracts are not well past $150k/year
In any case, if the OP considers quality of life having a home with lots of space then NYC will be a big downgrade. Even suburban homes in better towns tend to be older and smaller than nice Texas suburbs. If the OP doesn't care that much, than the downgrade will be much smaller.
It would be interesting to know what the median household is for any household that has moved into the UES in the past 3 years. The problem with looking at overall current median incomes is that they are going to include people living in paid-off coops, rent stabilized apartments and any subsidized apartments.
You're way off. The median income of the Upper East Side is $98k/year. However, the Upper East Side has more singles and fewer children so it's not exactly comparable to a wealthy Texas suburb.
There are few census tracts with a median income above $200k+/year near Central Park in the Upper East Side, but most tracts are not well past $150k/year
I"m thinking based on non-subsidized residents it's much higher. A lot of folks live in housing projects (not sure if there are any on the Upper East Side) and are living in subsidized apartments with well below market rates. Not sure if it's true but I heard NYC forces 20% of apartment units in a building be provided to lower income residents. With a $140k/yr income OP will not qualify for an federal, state or locale assistance.
Regardless $140k/yr is upper middle class most anywhere in the US, not sure about NYC though, I'd say it's really middle class there.
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Originally Posted by nei
In any case, if the OP considers quality of life having a home with lots of space then NYC will be a big downgrade. Even suburban homes in better towns tend to be older and smaller than nice Texas suburbs. If the OP doesn't care that much, than the downgrade will be much smaller.
agree entirely, moving from an apartment to another apartment won't be a problem.
I don't understand why the response on these types of threads is always along the lines of "well, you can't afford the priciest Manhattan neighborhoods, so you might as well move to Denver instead". No, the OP can't afford the Upper West or East sides, or Greenwich Village...but there is more to the NYC area than those neighborhoods. There are tons of Queens neighborhoods that would fit the bill, as well as parts of Westchester, Long Island, and New Jersey. All of these are places you can live on $140,000 quite comfortably while still having very easy access to the city, and an environment that may provide what the OP feels they can't get in Dallas.
I don't understand why the response on these types of threads is always along the lines of "well, you can't afford the priciest Manhattan neighborhoods, so you might as well move to Denver instead". No, the OP can't afford the Upper West or East sides, or Greenwich Village...but there is more to the NYC area than those neighborhoods. There are tons of Queens neighborhoods that would fit the bill, as well as parts of Westchester, Long Island, and New Jersey. All of these are places you can live on $140,000 quite comfortably while still having very easy access to the city, and an environment that may provide what the OP feels they can't get in Dallas.
Exactly. Op wants information on here to decide if he wants to move here. Not people telling him he can't live and afford a life here. We don't know him, nor know his lifestyle. Let's tell him what he's in for and let him make his decision. I know many families that make a lot less and still live good lives here. He's not someone coming here looking to live off the government he makes a good living!
* Moving to NYC would raise my salary by at least 20k. I can probably expect a bump of 30k to bring me up to ~140k.
* I wasn't looking to live in the center of Manhattan. That area seems to be for single people or millionaires, of which I am neither!
* My desire would have been to be a walk away from either a subway or train station that could take me to Grand Central for weekends and the odd night out on the town
I realize maybe ~130k isn't high enough to maintain my style of living here in DFW (I take my family out to eat every day, ~$40/day in food) but we came from nothing so scaling back our lifestyle wouldn't be too hard.
mikfleye3, thanks I'll take a look at Staten Island!
140k is still not north of 200k to maintain the life style you have in Texas to live in NYC. Scaling back eating out everyday doesn't make up 60k a year and that saving of not eating out everyday will be eaten up by NYC income tax anyway so you are still 60k short of life style you led even with scale back.
That said. If you go to outer boroughs and non-hot borough like Staten Island (i.e. most of Brooklyn is very hot, parts of Queens like Astoria, LIC are hot). You can definitely do family living there in Staten Island. Honestly, your better bet is to look outside NYC as a whole and look at Northern NJ, Westchester, Long Island, etc. It is cheaper for number of reasons and one of them is not paying NYC income tax. On weekends, driving in or taking a train to Manhattan is very easy because majority of folks are commuters.
I know where you are coming from when you say you came from nothing. You'd be surprised though to scale back, while it is definitely easier for us since we didn't have the living standard we have now while growing up. Loosing it still tough. My wife never thought not having cable tv was a big deal. Until II cancelled it and she realized it was a big deal LOL.
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