Fun info graphic in NY Mag on "High End" inflation. Everything in New York, both ordinary and luxury goods and services in Gotham, has gotten more expensive:
AVERAGE MONTHLY RENT FOR MANHATTAN 2BR
2003: $3,364
Percent increase: 16%
Today: $3,893AVERAGE TICKET PRICE FOR BROADWAY MUSICAL
2003: $66.75
Percent increase: 17%
Today: $77.88KILOWATT HOUR OF ELECTRICITY
2003: $0.136
Percent increase: 28%
Today: $0.175TAXI FARE FROM JFK TO MANHATTAN
2003: $35
Percent increase: 29%
Today: $45WEEKLY UNLIMITED METROCARD
2003: $17
Percent increase: 41%
Today: $24AVERAGE PRICE OF GALLON OF GAS
2003: $1.76
Percent increase: 57%
Today: $2.76AVERAGE BILL AT ZAGAT’S TOP-20 MOST-EXPENSIVE RESTAURANTS
2003: $90.68
Percent increase: 58%
Today: $143.06AVERAGE SALE PRICE OF MANHATTAN 2BR CO-OP
2003: $898,875
Percent increase: 59%
Today: $1,429,212AVERAGE PRICE OF GALLON OF MILK
2003: $2.44
Percent increase: 64%
Today: $4AVERAGE SALE PRICE OF HAMPTONS REAL ESTATE
2003: $805,875
Percent increase: 112%
Today: $1,712,259
No worries for denizens of Wall Street: Recent Federal data shows that NYC Finance professionals earned
an average annual income of $879,736 — a 140% increase since Q1 2003 . . .
>
Source:
Rich Get 140% Richer Can they still afford NYC?
Lionel Beehner
New York Magazine, Nov 25, 2007
http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/41295/
No worries for denizens of Wall Street: Recent Federal data shows that NYC Finance professionals earned an average annual income of $879,736 — a 140% increase since Q1 2003 . . .
___
See! We have nothing to worry about! Wall Street is fine!
What’s in YOUR wallet?
Whats the median income of NYC finance professionals? Is it THAT common to make $900K or are a couple of billionaires skewing the average?
900K.. thats nuts
Looks like it’s time to outsource those finance jobs.
Not surprising. Choose your own inflation measure…
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) “official” inflation= 3.5%
Pre-Clinton (1990) inflation measure= 6.9%, up from 6.1% in September
SGS-Alternate Consumer Inflation Measure (1980 methodology)= 11.1%
and people still wonder what all that cheap money did….
does that avg. take into account any bonus’?
Cause if it does’nt it’s MUCH HIGHER..
market’s on fire….GDP at 4.9%, Wage’s are growing.
Sure let’s lower interest rates…sounds like we are all doing just fine.
Ciao
MS
I wonder how much the cost of the NYC government accounts for the increases ?
900k in the financial sector wouldn’t surprise me. There are some billionaires, true, but a lot of people downtown make enormous amounts of money. If you include year-end bonuses (over the past five years of market rocketing, those have been astronomical), 900k doesn’t seem so high. Especially when you consider that most people burn out young down there. It’s kind of like professional athletes–you can kill yourself and make a lot, but for most, it doesn’t last. Many leave out of relationship- or self-preservation.
But a lot of professional salaries in NYC make people in some other parts of the country gasp. Together, my girlfriend and I make over a quarter of a million a year, and at best we’re kinda-semi-upper-middle-class. Everything is just so much more expensive here. When I tell people back in my hometown how much we pay in rent (yes, we missed the real estate run-up), they choke. But for here, we’re actually getting a pretty good deal.
(By the way, a guy in a restaurant where we ate last night dropped his cab receipt. A seven-minute ride, $7.10. And that’s before the tip. A buck+ per minute. It ain’t Schenectady, that’s for sure.)
The price differential mercifully doesn’t hold in electronics and appliances and long-distance air travel, and a few other things of that nature. That’s where making an inflated Manhattan salary can come in handy. A $2,000 TV is a $2,000 TV almost anywhere in the country. But here, that amount is a much lower percentage of our monthly wages than it would be elsewhere.
It is a fine salary, moreover for this price one does not need to count or to know calculus.Please see hereunder
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9h3FZsrhiJ0&refer=home
One may have to assume that arithmetic and accounting are two different classes of skills and RBS and Co will have to do more of one and less of the other.
« U.S. mortgage assets in collateralised debt obligations have lost so much value that the top classes of the securities may be worth as little as 20 cents on the dollar in the event of liquidation, Barclays Plc analysts said in a report.
Writedowns have been announced by companies including Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co., Morgan Stanley and Wachovia Corp. Today, Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, the U.K.’s second- biggest bank, reported 1.5 billion pounds ($3 billion) of writedowns from slumping credit markets.
The bank said it and ABN Amro Holding NV, which it’s acquiring, wrote down super-senior classes of high-grade CDOs to 90 cents on the dollar and of mezzanine CDOs to 70 cents. The companies’ net exposure, when taking into account the markdowns and hedges, fell to about $4 billion, Royal Bank said. «
get over to minyanville
there’s a nice little comment on home equity credit now a definite UNSECURED loan (remember all that easy credit because you had so much unproductive equity in your home)currently average bank provisions/reserves 1-2%
comment on property tax SHORTFALLS (if anything like here your municipalities have taken advantage of lagging valuations and slugged you for massive tax increases)
so I guess Paulson has more things to FREEZE
it’s that little problem of CREDIT INSURANCE to get over first and THEN the Iceman Cometh (apologies to Eugene O’Neill)
rgds pcm
Shhhhhh!!!…..
(Let’s not advertise that $899,000 salary too much over the internets, BR. The unwashed masses in the Great Flyover may revolt.)
Nice bile here,
Daddy has come to make all the bobo’s better, If the jobs number is ok, we get some candy, and if not some ice cream.
The idea that daddy’s little boy is going to get hurt, has all the
politicians all with their panties in a bunch.
They will apply a placebo, then in some time, some of these morons will go “I don’t think sub prime is over.”
Disclosure… Long Home Depot, ambac, mbia.CFC .. WTF not.
They need to stop messing around and just pay off every-one’s mortgage, and the bank debt… and 100K… Cause it will be good for the market.
While the salary headline gets everybody’s blood boiling, I’m more interested in how the average rental price of a 2BR rises 16% and the sale price of the average 2 BR condo goes up 59%. Something’s out of whack here, no?
And for the record, my money says the $900k number is the mean and the median is way different.
Ralph Rotnam, the late Director Of Research from Harris Upham (now Smith Barney) did a similar survey in 1970. He compiled a lengthy list of over 50 items that included a Shraft’s malted, theater tickets and panty hose. It was a great read at the time. Just before wage and price controls if I remember correctly.
As long as Uncle Sugar has an interest to defraud those on CPI+ contracts (SS and union contracts come to mind) the book cooking will continue. This is a form of criminal confiscation. Guess we can’t use Civil RICO laws against them though. Too bad.
Good point(s) Ross,
“The RICO Law was designed by Rats in order to catch the RATS”~John Gotti
A shame Leona Hemlsley isn’t alive to
crow out loud
“only the little people pay inflation!!!!”
The median data would be more interesting, as I bet the super-duper rich folks in NYC are skewing some of those numbers higher than most NYC dwellers are seeing. Some of those data points (like avg restaurant bill) are definitely sensitive to people who have tons of money to spend.
And down at my end of the economy–
recent increase in the cost of a coke from the vending machine +10%
increase in a double cheeseburger and fry combo at Micky D’s +15%
increase in Fed Ex shipping costs +6.9%
Living in a low inflation economy….PRICELESS
Ah, but what does it cost to get back your soul once you’ve sold it to JP Morgan?