Bureau of Labor Statistics: Average weekly wage in Manhattan is $2821

[Ban Hammer 13,364]

That's like TWO of the 2-BR/2-BA, no-den in my Montgomery County complex.

Does that $2,500 include a W/D (the $1,250 for our complex does)?

It's $2,500 for a shoebox

2500 a month here would get you this.

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Those aren't in Manhattan. The people in Manhattan who make the big bucks (and therefore skew the average) tend to be in professions that require you to be in NYC (or London) if you plan to be promoted and do well.

I, OTOH, am not in a job of that type and am duly intrigued by your links

those are more towards the upper end for housing around here. the average is around 135-200k.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The only thing that concerns me about moving "out there" is losing the proximity to Manhattan. Around here, if you can't find work locally, you can always find it in the City.

[Reynaldo 0]

I only live in Manhattan because of Columbia, but next year we would probably move to the outer boroughs...

It is still expensive, but you can get a little more for your money...

[Ban Hammer 13,364]

The only thing that concerns me about moving "out there" is losing the proximity to Manhattan. Around here, if you can't find work locally, you can always find it in the City.

actually, you're not too far from manhatten.

(manhatten kansas)

[russ 1]

No comment/discussion necessary, I just found this online, thought the number was amazing and wanted to share.

Average in the US is $885/week. In New York County (Manhattan) it's $2821/week.

It only takes a handful of billionaires to skew those numbers higher (it is a mean). The median means a lot more to most of us (it is $29,501 where I live, which is $560 a week.)

I commuted into the city on the Metro North from CT for a few months (it isn't all that cheap there, either). 2,821 a week is $145,000 a year. That isn't really big bucks for a middle class family in the northeast. And consider that making that 140K probably required you to fork out big bucks for a decent education in finance, medicine or engineering. These are household numbers, right? That probably means two incomes of about $75K, which isn't big money in Manhattan.

Living in the city, it would be difficult for my wife and I earning that. We certainly wouldn't have two cars, a 3 story townhouse, downtown, no debt, and be able to save anything substantial.

We make about that now, but the cost of living here is obviously a lot lower.

Moving back to Boston, or to Manhattan, my salary would need to increase by about 240% to have the same standard of living. (Taxes would obviously be a big factor in that - here, we don't have state or city income tax. The need to earn more bumps up your marginal federal rate too. ) Housing as well, you can't by a nice house anywhere near NYC for $250K like you can here. We wouldn't be joining a country club or yacht club, paying cash for grad school, or take vacations when we want.

[MrsAmera 41]

Yea that's rough. We were living in WI and paid $600 a month mortgage for a 3 bedroom, two story home with a basement, large backyard and garage. Now we live in Fairfax County VA - 2 bedroom 3rd and 4th story townhome apartment - W/D in the building no utilities for $1500 a month. It sucks!! However we do realize that the opportunities here are much greater.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

That's like TWO of the 2-BR/2-BA, no-den in my Montgomery County complex.

Does that $2,500 include a W/D (the $1,250 for our complex does)?

It's $2,500 for a shoebox

2500 a month here would get you this.

link

link

link

link

Even here (DC area--actually, Old Town Alexandria), you can get a free-standing house of about half the size--1,300-1,400 ft²--of the ones in your links for $2,500 monthly; or a townhome of 1,800-2,200 ft²

[Nikita2Charles 32]

Actually this example truly shows you how numbers can be easily manipulated.

If you take someone whose living in manhattan, making minimum wage, receipt govt subsidies for rent(Called Section 8). Those folks can barely making it. Then you take those folks from wall street making millions, if you average them out, it put out a really nice ROSY picture that is FAR different than reality.

Most people I knew growing up in NY living either in qeens, (F-train, flushing, # 7, E train coming from Jamaica and so on) folks live in queens/brooklyn, bronx and work in Manhattan, the best thing about NYC is the subway, you can easily find a subway stop closed to your job. The ritzy folks mostly take cabs to go around the city.

[Saddle Bronc 124]

Actually this example truly shows you how numbers can be easily manipulated.

If you take someone whose living in manhattan, making minimum wage, receipt govt subsidies for rent(Called Section 8). Those folks can barely making it. Then you take those folks from wall street making millions, if you average them out, it put out a really nice ROSY picture that is FAR different than reality.

Most people I knew growing up in NY living either in qeens, (F-train, flushing, # 7, E train coming from Jamaica and so on) folks live in queens/brooklyn, bronx and work in Manhattan, the best thing about NYC is the subway, you can easily find a subway stop closed to your job. The ritzy folks mostly take cabs to go around the city.

I guess an analogy could be with an exam where 10 students were tested with:

• two getting 100%
• two getting ZERO
• one getting 30%
• four getting 20%
• one getting 60%

The average score is 37%--and 70% of this hypothetical class was below that.

[sereia 0]

there are too many billionaires and multimillionaires to make this a realistic number. i made $1500 a week and my boss made probably a million or two a week when i lived in NYC. ha!

[russ 1]

there are too many billionaires and multimillionaires to make this a realistic number. i made $1500 a week and my boss made probably a million or two a week when i lived in NYC. ha!

Billionaires aren't skewing the cost of living though, as they are not competing with you for housing or most services. There are too few of them to make a difference. Most of the billions they have is in the form of ownership of the companies most of us work for.

[mawilson 2,133]

Sounds about right.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

These are household numbers, right?

No, this is wage data. Not household income data.

[mawilson 2,133]

These are household numbers, right?

No, this is wage data. Not household income data.

So it's before tax then? $150k a year?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

These are household numbers, right?

No, this is wage data. Not household income data.

So it's before tax then? $150k a year?

Yes, the data is pretax. Like everyone else has pointed out, it's a mean. So it's skewed by both extremes and Manhattan certainly has both extremes.