Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
$50K In Houston Equals $123K in NYC, Study Finds
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 6, 2009
Modified Feb 6, 2009
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
View all 7
By
John Del Signore
Published Feb 6, 2009
Modified Feb 6, 2009
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
A new report from the Center for an Urban Future (whose previous report, "Attack of the Chains," sparked a bidding war between Fox and Warner Bros.) confirms the obvious: the so-called middle class can no longer afford to live in New York and are relocating in large numbers to the exburbs or far-flung cities like Houston, where $50,000 a year gets you the same standard of living as a $123,322 salary does in Manhattan. Don't scoff; Space City has theater, opera, ballet, air-conditioned skywalks, a Holocaust Museum—even a lively local weblog, just like the one you enjoy here!
But if you're really determined to make a go of it here in New York, this report [PDF] is as sobering as it is unsurprising. Focusing on data primarily gathered before the economic deathspin went "full Bale," the study contends it's not just Manhattan that's cost-prohibitive to your average working stiff, but the boroughs as well: Queens is the fifth most expensive urban area in the U.S! Perhaps that's why twice as many New Yorkers relocated to Philadelphia ("the sixth borough!") in 2006 than in 2000. Or maybe they were just following orders from the Times Style section.
In all, 151,441 residents left the city in 2006, a 7% increase over 2002. (The overall population increased due to births and immigration.) And it's not just working class families; the number of New Yorkers with bachelor’s degrees who left the city rose to 29,370 in 2006, up 127% from a year earlier. The report says the problem is that while everything costs significantly more in NYC—home heating costs, for instance, have risen 125% in the past five years and are up 243% since 1998—wages have remained stagnant, even while Wall Street business was booming.
But Joe Salvo, director of the NYC Department of Planning’s population division, tells Crain's the study looked at too narrow a time period and didn't consider the people moving to New York. And speaking to reporters yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg seemed to shrug off the report, noting, "There is turnover all the time. That’s very healthy. We're doing fine." Then, perhaps realizing how that might sound coming from a gazillionaire, he added, "But it is very worrisome, the number of people who are losing their jobs."
Tagged
afford
center for an urban future
economy
Middle Class
new
new york
nyc
report
standard of living
study
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
DSNY worker arrested for killing a woman in Brooklyn while driving a garbage truck
A sanitation worker from Staten Island was charged with with failure to yield to a pedestrian for fatally striking Siobhan Lynch last week.
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Published Nov 5, 2026 at 8:18 a.m. ET
Brooklyn fire kills 6 people, injures 7 others in Sunset Park, officials said
A lithium-ion battery was found at the scene but the exact cause is unknown, officials said.
By
Brittany Kriegstein
News
Brooklyn fire kills 6 people, injures 7 others in Sunset Park, officials said
A lithium-ion battery was found at the scene but the exact cause is unknown, officials said.
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Mamdani pledged support for NYC street vendors. Now they’re facing a crackdown.
By
Liam Quigley
‘Mind-boggling’ killings show persistence of NYC’s domestic violence problem
By
Brittany Kriegstein
Bronx man wakes up to a $39K nightmare after online meetup at hotel, NYPD says
By
Charles Lane
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .