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Shocking New Study Finds NYC To Be Obscenely Expensive
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 22, 2016
Modified Jun 22, 2016
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By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Jun 22, 2016
Modified Jun 22, 2016
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In September, New York—land of the $10 latte and $95 million penthouse—was declared the most expensive city in the world, thanks to some wonky bank math. Now, a new study says New York's only the 11th most expensive city in the world in terms of cost-of-living, dwarfed by overseas bigwigs like Hong Kong, Zurich, and Shanghai. Still, it's the most expensive city in the world with good bagels, so that's something.
New York's newest cost-of-living ranking comes courtesy of consulting firm Mercer—they actually do these rankings every year, and our fair town's shot up from #16 in 2015. Apparently the increased strength of the U.S. dollar gave NYC a leg...up?... and although we're the only city that cracked the top 25, San Francisco (26), Los Angeles (27), DC (38), and Boston (47) made big leaps on the list, also thanks to the almighty dollar. Seattle, a city that's cool enough to let you buy weed at a store but uncool enough to have a bar at the Whole Foods near Amazon's headquarters, shot up 23 spots, to #83.
If you live and eat and pay rent here, you probably don't need any other evidence that New York is expensive as fuck, but here are some numbers, anyway. According to Mercer, the average monthly cost of renting a 2-bedroom apartment here is $5,100 (DEAR GOD!); in London (17), it's "only" $4,580, though those suckers in Hong Kong pay $6,800. Then again, a burger in New York costs an average of $8.74, whereas in Hong Kong, that dish'll run you an average of only $4.83. In London, the average is $6.43, but that burger probably tastes like dirt, so at least here you get your money's worth.
Millennials, please note that Philadelphia is nowhere to be found on this list.
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expensive
new york
the price is right
the rent is too damn high
why god
Rebecca Fishbein
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