General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAttention: Most NYC Dwellers Make Far Less Than $250,000 A Year
Half make less than $50,000 a year. So, please stop with the meme that if you make $250,000 in NYC, then you are poor. I've lived in Manhattan for 16 years, and I didn't even top $100,000 until year 14, and I'm doing just fine thank you. Hardly any of my colleagues make even close to $200,000 a year.
If you'e living in NYC, and you make $250,000 a year, you are doing extremely well, and you are NOT middle class. You are upper class.
That is all. Carry on.
elleng
(131,202 posts)JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)What brings up this nonsense? Some idiot saying how terrible it is to make $250 K again?
NNN0LHI
(67,190 posts)They think everyone is as stupid as they are.
Don
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Does your wife work (2nd income)? Do you have kids? Own or rent? All those are relevant to your income/cost of living.
Estimated median house/condo value in 2010: $750,085
10128: $750,085
New York: $304,100
Median resident age:
This zip code: 39.5 years
New York median age: 37.9 years
Average household size:
This zip code: 2.1 people
New York: 2.6 people
Averages for the 2004 tax year for zip code 10128, filed in 2005:
Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in 2004: $205,379 (Individual Income Tax Returns)
Here: $205,379
State: $59,519
Salary/wage: $149,218 (reported on 79.5% of returns)
Here: $149,218
State: $50,673
(% of AGI for various income ranges: 70.3% for AGIs $10k-25k, 85.7% for AGIs $25k-50k, 83.4% for AGIs $50k-75k, 80.7% for AGIs $75k-100k, 52.8% for AGIs over 100k)
Source: http://www.city-data.com/zips/10128.html
Yavin4
(35,450 posts)LynneSin
(95,337 posts)And that the Upper East Side is just one neighborhood in one of the 5 boroughs of NYC.
here's a neighborhood in the Bronx:
Averages for the 2004 tax year for zip code 10462, filed in 2005:
Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in 2004: $33,694 (Individual Income Tax Returns)
Here: $33,694
State: $59,519
Salary/wage: $34,703 (reported on 86.2% of returns)
Here: $34,703
State: $50,673
(% of AGI for various income ranges: 73.5% for AGIs below $10k, 77.6% for AGIs $10k-25k, 94.0% for AGIs $25k-50k, 91.6% for AGIs $50k-75k, 89.2% for AGIs $75k-100k, 78.5% for AGIs over 100k)
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/zips/10462.html#ixzz20FcqCOlG
fishwax
(29,149 posts)Yeah, because Manhattan is the norm for NYC.
marasinghe
(1,253 posts)where a waiter, waitress, kitchen worker, store worker, or a manual worker (plenty of them illegal, but quite a number of them US born citizens) gets paid $10 per day, plus tips & meals for the restaurant workers. Tips which, in most cheap restaurants add upto a yearly average of around $25 per day. which gives them less than $10,000 a year; enough to doss out at night in sleeping bags, on the floors of large open halls in 40 year-old buildings, with 2 toilets at each end of the floor for 50 people's use, at a rate of $3 per sleeping space per night.
i'm not gonna quote figures for certain neighborhoods in Harlem, the Bronx, Queens & Staten Island, where moving to Chinatown might be considered an improvement.
you won't see the Mayor's machine quoting these stats. i know these figures direct from friends & acquaintances who live them.
Lawlbringer
(550 posts)cumulative.
Having worked since I was 15. 12 years ago.
HooptieWagon
(17,064 posts)I imagine theres a lot of sub-40K residents in Queens, Bronx, etc. Counting only the wealthiest district in the city isnt a fair analysis.
Lionessa
(3,894 posts)which is what matters, is less likely to hit $250K even if one makes more than that by what 10% or so? If it's a more expensive metropolis, it's likely loaded higher deductions as well.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)Between federal, state, and city income taxes, and social security, someone at that level in NYC is paying around 50% in taxes.
Lionessa
(3,894 posts)affected, so we are in agreement, then. Are you suggesting that it's up to 50% more where I guessed 10%? I'll buy that, having never lived in NY.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)I was assuming it was referring to gross income, but that's obviously the key question.
Lionessa
(3,894 posts)pnwmom
(109,009 posts)Lionessa
(3,894 posts)no one seems to understand or remember, that taxes are based on Taxable Income, which is exactly the case with these limits.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)people are disagreeing here. Two people making a combined $250K gross in NYC are paying about half of that in taxes. And if they don't own property, they probably don't have enough in deductibles to exceed the standard deduction.
But if we're taxing about $250K NET, that's a whole different pile of money.
LynneSin
(95,337 posts)I read an interesting article on the NYTimes Real Estate page about why the Bronx has not revitalized in the way that Brooklyn has. I have to confess I love looking at the real estate listings in NYC even though I doubt I'd ever move there.
Brooklyn has been booming because Manhatten has become overpriced for most NYCers. If you didn't luck out finding a Rent-Controlled apartment (and btw they had a great article about that too - they compared it to finding a needle in a haystack) then for most people moving to NYC, Manhatten is just out of the question unless you can deal with a slew of roommates.
Brooklyn has been booming mainly because it's across the river from Manhatten so those wanting to connect to downtown Manhatten and still be home quickly have been going to Brooklyn and the real estate market is really going up there.
Bronx, located next to Upper Manhatten areas far away from Downtown Manhatten, the prices aren't going crazy. I looked at real estate prices and found homes around the size of my house here in Wilmington that weren't much more expensive either. I could probably afford a place in the Bronx but would I want to live there?
TV & Movies tend to focus on the areas that are glamourous to NYC which is probably why those of us who don't live in NYC think that NYC real estate is really overpriced and everyone makes hundred of thousands of dollars each year.
pnwmom
(109,009 posts)Sen. Walter Sobchak
(8,692 posts)Until some of my friends moved out to Long Beach (Long Island) about two years ago even with a significant income they were still living a lifestyle that anywhere else in America would be considered poverty. Such as living in a 600 square foot apartment that should have been condemned in plenty of time to have been burned down in the 70's and not being able to afford a car.
It was the car issue that finally got them out of New York, one of them needed a car for work and it was simply unattainable with the insane rent they were paying their slumlord for the privilege of risking their lives every time they got in the elevator or turned on the heat in the winter and being accosted by masturbating homeless men when they took the stairs.
If that is the lifestyle available to a professional couple making a whole lot more than $50,000 - I don't even want to contemplate what hell those making less than $50,000 are living.
Lucky Luciano
(11,264 posts)then your rent controlled, old and wornout prewar walkup apartment is wayyyyyyy below market. I pay slightly below market because I scooped up my place in June 2009. I am at $3000 for my 1BR while new apartments are around $3300.
On less than $100k, the rent just eats you alive.
Yavin4
(35,450 posts)That's how I do it, and that's how most of my friends do it as well.
You can save a lot on rent if you're willing to live with roommates.
Lucky Luciano
(11,264 posts)Most people over 25 would never do that. Not realistic.
Though you do live in the most expensive part of manhattan.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)AJTheMan
(288 posts)So many people on here have been talking about how $250,000 is not much in places like New York City and Los Angeles. I was shocked to hear Senator Schumer speak out on behalf of the quarter-millionaires, saying that tax cuts should extend all the way up to $1,000,000.
choie
(4,111 posts)New York millionaires. Not the $100,000 and under crowd.