Tuesday, April 19, 2005

Comments on the Northeast

From the comments posted to KnoxNews: No Silence Here: "It amazes me sometimes that people don't ask the obvious questions sometimes. Obviously, a lot of people prefer to live in the North for climate reasons, family, or maybe they were just raised there. However, how come a family of four earning $50,000 is solidly middle class in the South, yet considered unbelievably poor in NYC? I can't tell you how many friends have remarked that to live in NYC on under $30,000 as a single person, you are just scraping by and can't have any fun at all. If I could have made $30,000 starting out in the South (where I grew up), I would have had more fun than I can imagine.
This doesn't have to be a political blue state/red state issue - although there are obviously some important geographical implications here for the parties. But when are people going to realize the skewed nature of the costs of living in these states?
Sooner or later, real estate prices in the Northeast have to start going down. People just aren't going to be willing or able to pay $450,000 for a closet.

And the same goes for California, incidentally. I have a friend with a house less than 1/2 the size of mine in California. And his is no where NEAR downtown, and is still going for over half a million. Mine is twice as big, lot 3 times as big, much nicer, 40 years newer - and is around $200,000. And my commute is less than his.

Location, location, location."

1 comment:

tm said...

It's more expensive to live in a city, but there's more to do. It's the market at work: cities are more desirable, so costs of living are higher. Sure, it'd be cheaper to live in the boonies.....but you're in the boonies. The downside is self-evident.

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