Crossing the bridge into Manhattan, it becomes apparent that New York is designed and operates different to any city we have in Australia.
It has a different feel that initially was hard to put a finger on… it took quite a few Jack Daniels in Rooftop bars before it came to me…
Sure millions live and work in the city, kind of similar to Melbourne, but not in the same way… the city is their world, there is nowhere else other than Manhattan Island, sure there are bridges but they never cross them… and I mean never!!!
Now I am waiting for all the comments to come flying about me being a Hobbit in the Shire. Yes the similarities are a little scary…
Transport, although prehistoric in age, is surprisingly space age in design. Getting around on the Subway is almost too easy and for $2.75 return trip, it’s priced right too. Then there are the 5 million taxis and they actually want to stop and pick you up. And they are not much dearer than the subway…
Fashion is everything, if you are not wearing the latest expensive designer clothes then you simply do not fit in. And I was dragged through some of these shops… and Wow, its absolutely ridiculous how expensive clothes are. Funny to see that affordable shops like Zara were completely full with women buying all day… confirming my theory below.
Now to get to the important stuff…a JD and coke in most of the bars we went to were $14-$18 dollars each… US @90c to the dollar… plus gratuity.
Never been to the US, well gratuity is an almost mandatory tip system that you pay in every bar, restaurant and taxi. This is because the staff earn such a low hourly wage. Gratuity is now an expected 18% of the bill.
Tip well and you get looked after well… don’t tip and beware.
Back to the numbers, that meant my JD ended up close to $25 per drink, but they were strong. JD with a little coke colouring…
Dining can be a mixed bag… you can eat a $100 steak or eat a pizza or Chilli Dog for $5… and yes the $5 option can be just as tasty. And bars and restaurants are full 7 days a week. NY is certainly a city that never sleeps…
Then as the days rolled on, JD’s kept flowing and the reality of NY started to hit home… little hints of talk from the locals reveal this lifestyle is not that real at all… it seems NY’ers look and live the dream but in reality they cannot afford it.
Manhattan apartments start at a lazy $1.4million… and thats a 1 bedroom studio in a reasonable area. Eight or ten million dollar apartments were not uncommon, in fact they were the norm…
Now equate that with a median income of $50,895… in what world does that equation work???
Certainly not mine…
NY is a city of the 1%’ers who can afford these properties and everyone else lives across the bridge and travel to work. If the remainder 99% who try to live like the 1%’ers and all too often they fail.
More than we hear about it, they fade away into the shadows and along comes the next player who think they can make it, and portray this image for as long as they can, in the hope that success will actually knock on their door and pay the big bucks…
The Big Apple certainly has a long list of financial failure casualties… celebrities included…
To bring this story back to property, those same apartments for $1.4 mill rent for $3,200 per month…
For those quick on the up take, yep that’s a very poor yield… of around 2.74%. A studio one bedder for a measly $738 per week!!!
On a positive note their income tax is far less than Australia’s. An income of $50,895 would attract around 6% income tax = $920 net per week verse Australia @ $809 per week.
Adding a twist to the saga, across the bridge in Brooklyn property prices reduce by up to 90%… we viewed many properties for around the $180k mark and they were not too bad. The yields were much more attractive at this price point as well, but still not fantastic.
Bringing it back to a nicer tone, NY’ers do have a soft hearted nature as well and can be generous bunch… we noticed many times, that executives would buy 2 rolls for lunch and giving one to a homeless person street.
I guess the moral here is to not live beyond your means, keeping up with the Joneses is simply not worth the heartache.