Conflicting Info On Reasonable Income for Manhattan (for sale, apartments)

[zdg]

I've gone through page after page of these threads and am getting seriously conflicting information on what it will cost my family to move from our high-end part of Houston to Manhattan.

It's always been my impression that it would be essentially impossible to live a nice relatively low-stress life in Manhattan without an income well into the hundreds of thousands a year. I'm not talking about getting out of college and moving into a closet in a seedy part of town with 15 roommates, I'm talking about raising a small family in a very nice apartment with a nice private school and eating out on a regular basis.

Here in Houston, we live an upper middle class lifestyle with no problem. While that sounds like no big deal to the folks who read the silly reports that tell you that you can live in Houston for $150,000; let me assure you that those houses aren't anywhere near the part of town we live in. Let me be clear, I'm not bragging at all; I just want to get the point across regarding the lifestyle we live now because we want to retain that when/if we move to Manhattan.

I am lucky because we have a completely portable consulting business that I can pick up overnight and move anywhere, so finding a comparable job there is not a problem.

Here's what I want to know: I don't care about the recent college grad moving to the big city lifestyle. I want to know how much income a family in their 30s/40s with one child, living in a very nice (maybe not quite "luxury", depending on your definition) apartment in the Upper West Side or Village, sending their child to a decent private school needs.

I've just read far too many threads here that tell me I can get by in Manhattan for "$50k a year just fine" because I know that's not possible with the lifestyle we've grown accustomed to.

What do we need? $250k? $400k? $1m a year?

Appreciate any help.

[NJ Chutzpah]

is there a particular reason you want to raise a family in Manhattan?

is it to expand your business?

Most Family Men raise their kids in the burbs

$150K should do fine in the burbs

If you must stay in the city, then try Western Queens, Staten Island, or southern Brooklyn

$150K should do you fine in those areas

[Viralmd]

Originally Posted by NJ Chutzpah

Most Family Men raise their kids in the burbs

Not true. There are many, many families in NYC. And in Manhattan. I live in Manhattan and I know.

An apartment - do you want to rent or buy? That makes a huge difference.

And private schools: first your child has to be accepted. After that it's about $30,000/year. Plus uniforms and books, etc. $50K/year just won't cut it.

For a 2 BR rental, expect to pay AT LEAST $3500, if not MORE, in a nice neighborhood in Manhattan. I would say more, because my manager just moved to a nice 1BR and she's paying about that for her one bedroom.

Does that help?

[zdg]

We've considered the burbs but then just basically decided that if we were going to do that, we'd just stay here. If we do this, it's to be in Manhattan. I know this is going to sound like a really silly (possibly stupid) reason, but the answer at this point is "because we can."

I think at some point, every upwardly mobile American would like to move to the middle of NYC, at least for a little while. We're both very much used to big city living (we're right in the middle of the 4th largest city in American and half of my family is from LA), but we'd like our daughter to grow up in the cultural capital of the universe.

I have nothing against the other areas outside Manhattan and am sure they each are spectacular places to live; but that's not what we're looking to do at this time.

I really just want to nail down how much we should need to be making pre/post tax to maintain our lifestyle in UWS or the Village.

[Viralmd]

The UWS and the Village are two of the most pricey areas in Manhattan. Rentals there are amazingly pricey, as are the apartments for sale.

[zdg]

Originally Posted by Viralmd

An apartment - do you want to rent or buy? That makes a huge difference.

We were first thinking buy, but the more we look, it appears it makes more sense to rent for a few years first despite being home owners where we are here.

And private schools: first your child has to be accepted. After that it's about $30,000/year. Plus uniforms and books, etc. $50K/year just won't cut it.

Do you mean $50,000/yr for schooling won't do or $50,000/yr in income won't do? We're well above $50,000 in income if that's what you meant. I was just using that as an example of one of the things I'd seen in another thread. We're making about $360,000 pretax here (remember there is no state or city tax in Texas like there is in NYC, however).

For a 2 BR rental, expect to pay AT LEAST $3500, if not MORE, in a nice neighborhood in Manhattan. I would say more, because my manager just moved to a nice 1BR and she's paying about that for her one bedroom.

Does that help?

Absolutely. If it makes it easier to figure what we're looking at, on the websites we've been searching for apartments, we've been looking in the $4k-$7k range for monthly rent.

[Moderate Guy]

Originally Posted by zdg

We've considered the burbs but then just basically decided that if we were going to do that, we'd just stay here. If we do this, it's to be in Manhattan. I know this is going to sound like a really silly (possibly stupid) reason, but the answer at this point is "because we can."

I think at some point, every upwardly mobile American would like to move to the middle of NYC, at least for a little while. We're both very much used to big city living (we're right in the middle of the 4th largest city in American and half of my family is from LA), but we'd like our daughter to grow up in the cultural capital of the universe.

I have nothing against the other areas outside Manhattan and am sure they each are spectacular places to live; but that's not what we're looking to do at this time.

I really just want to nail down how much we should need to be making pre/post tax to maintain our lifestyle in UWS or the Village.

Between 150k-250k

[zdg]

Originally Posted by Viralmd

The UWS and the Village are two of the most pricey areas in Manhattan. Rentals there are amazingly pricey, as are the apartments for sale.

Right, that's what I'm trying to figure out. If we assume $4k-$7k for housing, the fact that we'll now have city and state taxes, know that private school (IF we can get in) will cost $3k a month, what else should we be aware of expense wise?

[zdg]

Originally Posted by Miles

Between 150k-250k

Pre or post tax? Appreciate it, by the way.

[Moderate Guy]

Originally Posted by zdg

Pre or post tax? Appreciate it, by the way.

pre-tax, closer to 250k gross, more enjoyable, less stringent budget. cheers.