Owning a home in Queens is not cheap

From the Times Ledger:

Owning a home can be quite expensive in New York City.

A new analysis revealed that Queens ranked as the fourth highest county in New York where residents spent half of their income on housing costs.

Gavop, a real estate, housing, and local data analytics service, used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to produce a study on homeowners’ costs as a percentage of income, according to Kevin Pryor, Gavop analyst. It analyzed real estate trends at the county level across the United States and found that Queens County had a median income of $62,207 and a median housing cost of $29,136 per year for homeowners with a mortgage.

In the study, housing costs include homeowner expenses such as the sum of mortgage payments, real estate taxes, insurance, and utilities.

“We looked at annual housing costs as a percentage to gauge how much debt people owe to their living situation based on location,” said Pryor. “Here, the numbers show that Queens residents paid a high median percentage of income on housing costs, resulting in a large debt to homeownership in the area.”

Pryor said for Queens “it was abnormally high for New York.” The percentage was 46.8 percent, where residents spent half of their income on mortgage payments, including utilities and maintenance.

Queens County’s median housing cost in relation to income is much larger than New York state’s rate of 39.5 percent and the national level of 31 percent.

We're too poor to buy new cars

From Crains:

Median-income families in the New York area cannot afford new cars at their average purchase price nationally, according to a study by Interest.com. Those families are in good company, though, since the same is true in all but one of the country's largest metropolitan areas.

Interest.com calculated what households in the country's 25 largest metropolitan areas could afford to spend on cars. They factored in median income, sales tax and insurance costs, creating an affordability index for car purchases. The New York metropolitan area ranked at No. 10 on that list, right behind San Diego and ahead of Philadelphia.

The study found that the affordable purchase price for a New York City household's new car is $21,464, or a maximum monthly payment of $431.

What the study mainly illustrates is that people spend too much money on their cars, said Mike Sante, Interest.com's managing editor. In New York, car costs are driven up by higher-than-average sales taxes and insurance costs.

"It just makes buying a car that much more expensive," Mr. Sante said.

Higher incomes offset this a bit, but New Yorkers also have to pay more for housing. There is much more flexibility in choosing a car, Mr. Sante said, so people in expensive housing markets like New York have even more to gain by making a smart car decision.

"The thing for New Yorkers that is so critical is that you have to pay a lot for housing," Mr. Sante said. "This is your second biggest expense and you really need to keep it under control."

Cost of living rises faster than income

From Crains:

In the decade that ended in 2010, housing and transportation costs rose nearly twice as fast as income for median-income households in the New York metro area, according to a new report tracking the nation's 25 largest metro areas. The report, which was released Thursday morning, also had some good news, however: Despite the jump in costs, the New York area fell into the middle range in the group in terms of affordability, ranking 10th.

Housing and transportation costs in the New York area rose 55% during the 10-year period, while income grew 31%, according to the report by the Center for Housing Policy, an affiliate of the National Housing Conference. More than half of households' income, 56%, goes toward housing and transportation, with housing carrying most of the burden, at 34%. The report, dubbed "Losing Ground: The Struggling of Moderate-Income Households to Afford the Rising Costs of Housing and Transportation," covered New York-area households with annual incomes of $34,389 to $68,778.

The rise of housing and transportation costs in New York outpaced the average for the 25 metro areas, which rose 44% in the decade, driven mainly because of housing expenses.

In New York, the report found that homeowners carry a bigger burden than renters. Renters spend roughly 52% of their income on their home and transportation, versus a homeowner, who spends 61% on those items. Homeowners also lay out slightly more of their income on transportation, 24% versus 21% for renters.