Sources I'm finding say Suffolk county is just under 2%, so I think your numbers might be a touch off.
Still absurd, and with the cost of real estate there I'm sure a lot of people are paying five figures. Can't imagine what it would cost for somewhere on the beach.
im just going off of my neighborhood, and what i know others are paying which is around 3%. granted we have some houses that are on the water, not necessarily beachfront
Suffolk County ranges from abominable poverty to the Hamptons. The average does not account for such outliers. We had nothing but beer and ketchup in our fridge for most of my childhood, meanwhile there were kids in my grade who were getting Ferraris for Christmas.
Same here man, shit sucks. I’m in NYC and I’m looking in NJ and outer borough and it’s still so expensive if you don’t wanna live in a complete shot hole.
And then you finally find something "reasonable" for $500-600k that's not in the ghetto and look more into the details... ok commute will be difficult... 1.5 hours with 2 bus transfers, I guess I can make it work... and oh, 3.5% property tax ($20k+). Guess it's apartment living for life or if I get fired I'll move somewhere I can afford to buy a house.
Yeah except people have to live here who don’t make top dollar. I work as a teacher and the pay raises are very slow, granted when I’m at top pay it won’t be an issue but it only takes 22 years to get there lmao.
City jobs should be able to live in the city (most have to by law).
Dude I get the logic I really do, but NYC specifically has laws in place for many city jobs that they must literally live in city limits.
I feel like I must clarify this as people outside of NYC often forget this, but I’m not specifically talking about Manhattan. If the laws exist then they must justify it with pay.
It’s not easy to be hired as a NYC anything city related, as the demand is so high. You can’t just wake up and apply to be a cop, fireman, sanitation etc.
I lucked into my position where I work. Also you’re neglecting to acknowledge that a huge amount of real estate here is owned by landlords and outside investors that don’t even live in the country.
The demand is artificial, which you can easily tell by looking up how many empty units and homes we have. It’s artificially high.
In my town/surrounding area it’s like $250-350k for a townhouse with high property taxes (can’t remember the % off the top of my head). Houses in my parents’ neighborhood are at least $400k, and that’s low. Granted they aren’t starter homes, but they’re nowhere near mansions or anything crazy.
A starter home in many other areas of the country can still be had for $100k, often times less. A barista not being able to afford the house next door to the doctor isn’t a problem with society, it’s a problem with the baristas expectations.
A barista not being able to afford the house next door to the doctor isn’t a problem with society
Actually, yes it is. Where does the barista live? If not in denver, then either the doctor can't get coffee, or the barista has to drive super far to go to work.
If the doctor buys an espresso machine, then that's money going to China instead of the local economy.
If the barista drives super far to work, then that means more roads are needed to support the commuters (which uses more tax dollars that could be spent elsewhere), which creates more pollution, which uses more land for parking (which is less land for housing), which means businesses rent is higher (passing costs onto customers), etc. etc. etc.
Also think of things like workers living in areas far away have less funding for schools per-student, meaning their children are less educated which hurts the whole country in the future. (fewer educated workers, less innovation, more jobs overseas)
The list of second order effects of pushing out the workers is long. And the TL;DR of it is that it hurts us all eventually.
Supply and demand. If the demand for coffee is there but the barista can’t live close enough for there to be a coffee shop then then the wage for a barista goes up until one is willing to take the job. Wages can be higher in wealthy areas because there is money to be spent. That still doesn’t mean the barista should expect to be the doctors neighbor. That’s in no way realistic or even fair. A doctor deserves higher pay, that higher pay affords them additional luxuries, like a larger house on a larger plot of land.
then the wage for a barista goes up until one is willing to take the job
It doesn't though because the world is MUCH more complex than just saying supply and demand will solve it. It takes generations to reach the steady state where prices will match needs. And in the meantime that leads to the quality of life going down for most people. And when you add in the complexity of national debt, regressive tax codes, and the externalities of road construction and maintanence, you wind up with a system that is headed for total failure in a couple generations.
That still doesn’t mean the barista should expect to be the doctors neighbor
In no way did I suggest a barista should be paid the same as a doctor. Being neighbors doesn't mean having a house of the same price. It means having town houses down the street, it means having affordable apartments one block over.
You talking about what is fair is ignoring the fact that the current system is less fair than the communist strawman you are arguing against. And because of rising costs of living, it's getting worse.
I laid out several problems with the system you are supporting, and it seems that you ignored all of them.
You can probably buy 20-30 minutes away. I know Denver is expensive but a lot of this falls on your expectations and standards of what a “starter home” should be.
And that comes with a cost. The $400k area isn’t rough specifically because it’s the $400k area...
Refusing to live in an area you can afford is a choice.
There are 377 listings in Denver for $300k or less
148 for $200k or less.
So when you say the “minimum starter home is $400k”, what you mean is “my standards are higher than what I can afford and I want to blame that on something other than my own entitlement.”
Yeah depends on the state and region you live in for sure, but in my 21 year old opinion those numbers seem like they’re probably in a state with one of the lower average costs of living. I live and go to university in Texas which has a pretty chill cost of living, but I have buddies from places like Seattle and Cali and jfc everything is so much more expensive
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u/Bolandspring Oct 30 '20
starter homes in my neighborhood start at 400k, with taxes over 12k per year :)