Some info from US News and world report, some with my comment:

A person living in Manhattan needs to earn $123,322 a year to be considered middle class, the equivalent of a $72,772 salary in Boston and a $50,000 salary in Houston, the study says.

• The average rent is $2,800, which is 53 percent higher than San Francisco, the second-most expensive city in the country.

• The average apartment in Manhattan sells for more than $1.4 million (the median price is $900,000).

• New Yorkers pay higher taxes than people in any other major U.S. city, roughly 50 percent more than the average in other cities and nearly triple the U.S. average.
Yet somehow there is much less rage and much more acceptance of this than in places that pay barely any taxes at all. Seriously, the less taxes people pay the more mad they are about paying them.

• Young families that earn less and have little savings are also being hurt. A family of three earning $55,000 a year will have to pay nearly half of that income for early childhood care. Families making $100,000 will often pay more in day-care costs than they do in a monthly mortgage payment or rent.

Middle class friends that have more than 1 kid all have a grandparent that stays at home with them. Otherwise it is impossible. Only poor people can have multiple kids, for middle class it is out of reach. Kind of screwed up system.

• Electricity bills are higher in New York than anywhere in the nation except Hawaii. Residential electricity prices increased by 27 percent between 2002 and 2007.

Really? Second after Hawaii? Never even noticed that, because utility bills are not so significant in comparison to rent, childcare, transportation… if you are paying 3K a month for your 1.5 bedroom, 120 electric bill for said 1 bedroom will not be bothering you as much.