Attention: Most NYC Dwellers Make Far Less Than $250,000 A Year

[Yavin4]

Half make less than $50,000 a year. So, please stop with the meme that if you make $250,000 in NYC, then you are poor. I've lived in Manhattan for 16 years, and I didn't even top $100,000 until year 14, and I'm doing just fine thank you. Hardly any of my colleagues make even close to $200,000 a year.

If you'e living in NYC, and you make $250,000 a year, you are doing extremely well, and you are NOT middle class. You are upper class.

That is all. Carry on.

[elleng]

1. Tell Senator Schumer???

[JackRiddler]

2. Thank you!

What brings up this nonsense? Some idiot saying how terrible it is to make $250 K again?

[NNN0LHI]

3. More than one idiot trying that recently

They think everyone is as stupid as they are.

Don

[leveymg]

4. Where do you live in Manhattan? The median income in zip 10128 (Up E Side) is $205,379/yr.

Does your wife work (2nd income)? Do you have kids? Own or rent? All those are relevant to your income/cost of living.

Estimated median house/condo value in 2010: $750,085
10128: $750,085
New York: $304,100

Median resident age:
This zip code: 39.5 years
New York median age: 37.9 years

Average household size:
This zip code: 2.1 people
New York: 2.6 people

Averages for the 2004 tax year for zip code 10128, filed in 2005:
Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in 2004: $205,379 (Individual Income Tax Returns)
Here: $205,379
State: $59,519

Salary/wage: $149,218 (reported on 79.5% of returns)
Here: $149,218
State: $50,673
(% of AGI for various income ranges: 70.3% for AGIs $10k-25k, 85.7% for AGIs $25k-50k, 83.4% for AGIs $50k-75k, 80.7% for AGIs $75k-100k, 52.8% for AGIs over 100k)

Source: http://www.city-data.com/zips/10128.html

[Yavin4]

8. West Village, NYC n/t

[LynneSin]

10. You realize there are probably over 100s of zip codes for NYC

And that the Upper East Side is just one neighborhood in one of the 5 boroughs of NYC.

http://www.city-data.com/zips/10462.html

here's a neighborhood in the Bronx:

Averages for the 2004 tax year for zip code 10462, filed in 2005:
Average Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) in 2004: $33,694 (Individual Income Tax Returns)
Here: $33,694
State: $59,519


Salary/wage: $34,703 (reported on 86.2% of returns)

Here: $34,703
State: $50,673

(% of AGI for various income ranges: 73.5% for AGIs below $10k, 77.6% for AGIs $10k-25k, 94.0% for AGIs $25k-50k, 91.6% for AGIs $50k-75k, 89.2% for AGIs $75k-100k, 78.5% for AGIs over 100k)

Read more: http://www.city-data.com/zips/10462.html#ixzz20FcqCOlG

[fishwax]

11. that zip code represents about one half of one percent of NYC's population

[progressoid]

12. ROFL

Yeah, because Manhattan is the norm for NYC.

[marasinghe]

23. let's balance this with Manhattan's Chinatown ....

where a waiter, waitress, kitchen worker, store worker, or a manual worker (plenty of them illegal, but quite a number of them US born citizens) gets paid $10 per day, plus tips & meals for the restaurant workers. Tips which, in most cheap restaurants add upto a yearly average of around $25 per day. which gives them less than $10,000 a year; enough to doss out at night in sleeping bags, on the floors of large open halls in 40 year-old buildings, with 2 toilets at each end of the floor for 50 people's use, at a rate of $3 per sleeping space per night.

i'm not gonna quote figures for certain neighborhoods in Harlem, the Bronx, Queens & Staten Island, where moving to Chinatown might be considered an improvement.

you won't see the Mayor's machine quoting these stats. i know these figures direct from friends & acquaintances who live them.

[Lawlbringer]

5. I think I just hit 250k now

cumulative.

Having worked since I was 15. 12 years ago.

[HooptieWagon]

6. Is it fair to just count Manhatten?

I imagine theres a lot of sub-40K residents in Queens, Bronx, etc. Counting only the wealthiest district in the city isnt a fair analysis.

[Lionessa]

7. Additionally if you live in NYC your deductions are likely higher, and therefore the net income

which is what matters, is less likely to hit $250K even if one makes more than that by what 10% or so? If it's a more expensive metropolis, it's likely loaded higher deductions as well.

[pnwmom]

14. If you live in NYC, you have to pay substantial state and CITY income taxes.

Between federal, state, and city income taxes, and social security, someone at that level in NYC is paying around 50% in taxes.

[Lionessa]

15. Which effectively lowers their net income so only those with considerably higher than $250K will be

affected, so we are in agreement, then. Are you suggesting that it's up to 50% more where I guessed 10%? I'll buy that, having never lived in NY.

[pnwmom]

16. Is the law referring to net income or gross income?

I was assuming it was referring to gross income, but that's obviously the key question.

[Lionessa]

17. Taxable income, not gross, ie the number after deductions.

[pnwmom]

18. So is the law referring to taxable income only? I didn't realize that. n/t

[Lionessa]

19. YES! Dozens of posts about this here and on DU2 over the past two years, and yet even here

no one seems to understand or remember, that taxes are based on Taxable Income, which is exactly the case with these limits.

[pnwmom]

22. Thanks for clearing that up. This may be part of why

people are disagreeing here. Two people making a combined $250K gross in NYC are paying about half of that in taxes. And if they don't own property, they probably don't have enough in deductibles to exceed the standard deduction.

But if we're taxing about $250K NET, that's a whole different pile of money.

[LynneSin]

9. NYC is a big city so alot of that depends on which borough or which neighborhood too

I read an interesting article on the NYTimes Real Estate page about why the Bronx has not revitalized in the way that Brooklyn has. I have to confess I love looking at the real estate listings in NYC even though I doubt I'd ever move there.

Brooklyn has been booming because Manhatten has become overpriced for most NYCers. If you didn't luck out finding a Rent-Controlled apartment (and btw they had a great article about that too - they compared it to finding a needle in a haystack) then for most people moving to NYC, Manhatten is just out of the question unless you can deal with a slew of roommates.

Brooklyn has been booming mainly because it's across the river from Manhatten so those wanting to connect to downtown Manhatten and still be home quickly have been going to Brooklyn and the real estate market is really going up there.

Bronx, located next to Upper Manhatten areas far away from Downtown Manhatten, the prices aren't going crazy. I looked at real estate prices and found homes around the size of my house here in Wilmington that weren't much more expensive either. I could probably afford a place in the Bronx but would I want to live there?

TV & Movies tend to focus on the areas that are glamourous to NYC which is probably why those of us who don't live in NYC think that NYC real estate is really overpriced and everyone makes hundred of thousands of dollars each year.

[pnwmom]

13. Who said you're poor if you make less than $250K?

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

20. Most NYC Dwellers have a lifestyle that would make me jump off something.

Until some of my friends moved out to Long Beach (Long Island) about two years ago even with a significant income they were still living a lifestyle that anywhere else in America would be considered poverty. Such as living in a 600 square foot apartment that should have been condemned in plenty of time to have been burned down in the 70's and not being able to afford a car.

It was the car issue that finally got them out of New York, one of them needed a car for work and it was simply unattainable with the insane rent they were paying their slumlord for the privilege of risking their lives every time they got in the elevator or turned on the heat in the winter and being accosted by masturbating homeless men when they took the stairs.

If that is the lifestyle available to a professional couple making a whole lot more than $50,000 - I don't even want to contemplate what hell those making less than $50,000 are living.

[Lucky Luciano]

21. If you have been in Manhattan 16 years,

then your rent controlled, old and wornout prewar walkup apartment is wayyyyyyy below market. I pay slightly below market because I scooped up my place in June 2009. I am at $3000 for my 1BR while new apartments are around $3300.

On less than $100k, the rent just eats you alive.

[Yavin4]

24. One Word: Roommates

That's how I do it, and that's how most of my friends do it as well.

You can save a lot on rent if you're willing to live with roommates.

[Lucky Luciano]

25. That is an ultra-sacrifice.

Most people over 25 would never do that. Not realistic.

Though you do live in the most expensive part of manhattan.

[HiPointDem]

28. and yet more than half the households in nyc make under $60K.

[AJTheMan]

26. It's about time someone said that.

So many people on here have been talking about how $250,000 is not much in places like New York City and Los Angeles. I was shocked to hear Senator Schumer speak out on behalf of the quarter-millionaires, saying that tax cuts should extend all the way up to $1,000,000.

[choie]

27. that's who butters his bread...

New York millionaires. Not the $100,000 and under crowd.