Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Middle class leaving in droves

From the NY Post:

New York City's 700,000 middle class families are being squeezed as never before, and they are leaving.

Although their earnings are far higher than the US middle-class average, their cost of living expenses far exceed the national average.

A family of four in the five boroughs is considered middle class with a median income of $105,000, and the figure for a single is $67,500, according to the Drum Major Institute.

As most city residents know, the city is far more expensive to live in than any other US city. A NYC household earning $80,000 would not have the comforts of living; in fact it would barely cover basic needs.

The city's middle class wealth is tied to home values, yet the average home sale price in New York City dropped 22 percent in the last year, according to the Real Estate Board of New York.

The outer boroughs have lost more than 40,000 families where a member held a bachelor's degree - a factor in determining middle-class status, in 2007, according to the Center for an Urban Future.

More than 151,000 middle-class residents left the city in 2006 alone, according to the study. Many have opted to take the much longer commute from the Poconos or Philadelphia in order to live middle-class lives.

12 comments:

georgetheatheist said...

Be wary of any info emanating from the pinko Drum Major Institute.

Anonymous said...

Hmm, lets see....

Most middle-class workers are in professions where jobs are in a pay freeze, meanwhile the city sends out letters to homeowners that say both (1) your property value is lower but (2) we are going to tax you more anyway.

Then the middle class home owner opens a letter saying that water service is going up ~15%.


Finally done looking at the mail, the homeowner will then open the newspaper. Page 12 have a nice article about an $11 toll to cross a decades old bridge, and the option of buying a $106 monthly Metrocard instead.

Before he can get to the sports section to read about last nights baseball game (which due to ticket prices they cant go to anymore), he reads an article on page 27 about how even after all he is investing into his home at great expense, in the end, he just might get it taken away from him with minuscule compensation just because a developer thinks he can put a strip-mall there.


Gee, i cant figure out why people who can leave, are!

Gary the Agnostic said...

georgetheatheist said...
Be wary of any info emanating from the pinko Drum Major Institute.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

---------------------------------

Beware of any information eminating from Wingnut websites as well.

Anonymous said...

My wife looked at the water bill and was like "WTF - this is crazy"

Anonymous said...

"Pinko"... who talks like that?

This guy musta drunk the Rand Kool-aid!

Missing Foundation said...

Notice how Blumturd talks about the rising middle class he is fostering in his commericals and the bought media collects his money and keeps its mouth shut.

Blumturd has made the media a whore in the media capital of the world.

Suzannah B. Troy artist said...

Mike Bloomberg crushed the middle class and the "new" Yankee Stadium is like his "new" hideous New York -- nobody can afford it.

Thank you,
Suzannah B. Troy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1VF_Sa6QNo

Anonymous said...

Compared to me those people are millionaires. Do you know that there are actually people hanging on by a thread in New York City who are living on $8.00 and $10.00 an hour jobs?

Let's crush all the working class and poor as well as the middle class. After all, the people in India can type our letters, answer our phones and treat us when we fly over there.

Let's just hope that India and China send over some riot police for when the country starts going up in flames.

Anonymous said...

I wonder which President the Post will blame for this . . .

Anony2 said...

Wow, I'm not even middle class this year! I was last year,when I had a salary raise, a mid-year bonus and a Xmas bonus. Nothing this year. Salary freeze, no bonuses.
Oh wait, btwn Bloomturd & Con Ed my street has been torn up 5 times in the last 18 months. Yes, FIVE!
Maybe I can join the street paver's union...

Lino said...

What is driving the middle class out is the cost of housing due mainly to the gutting of effective rent regulation.

Here in Manhattan a two bdrm in a decent building rents for upwards of $4000/mo -nearly $50,000 a year just to rent. With these prices you have to assume two incomes with each paying almost 50% of their earnings for rent.

It doesn't stop at residential rents either. There are -no- commercial rent regulations and as a result -everything- you buy here costs a lot more then out in the sticks.

Some of our current leaders have become sanguine that the bad ol' days of the 1970s can not return. Fact is that what nearly killed NYC back then was a hollowing out of the white middle class driven often be fear of crime and "changed" neighborhoods.

Today the danger is simply burning out people who see an ever growing cost of living and little chance for saving or improving one's quality of life.

America's young people have traditionally wanted to come to places like New York and other major cities but eventually, the sheer hopelessness of the situation here may dissuade the "best and brightest" from coming here. Watch what will fill the gap if that happens, 70s all over again.

In short, The Leach (landlord)is killing the host.

Lino

Anonymous said...

FU Mayor Mike...you can't tax me out of my home in NYC! I ain't leaving! I love it here!

This fed up middle class resident, with the help of my attorney, just completed setting up a federal tax exempt not for profit organization (registered in New York State) ...ALL PERFECTLY LEGAL... and I'm no longer paying real estate taxes!

Now they own my home but I can live in it!

F--k with me Mike and I'll f--k you right back!