New York as the Center of the World...Not

I've been looking around at sites that list the most expensive cities in the US to live in. No matter which site I've gone to, New York City tops the list. Of course, one of the reasons for that designation is Manhattan, THE most expensive part of the city to live in. But there are other parts of the city that are coming closer and closer to the Manhattan benchmark; they are also more expensive then other cities elsewhere. And then there are the Long Island suburbs and the Westchester County enclaves.

What does this mean for frum Jews? One thing should be fairly obvious; it's going to cost frum Jews more to live in NYC then to live elsewhere. And yet, NYC has become "anointed" as the frum center of the US, with Brooklyn as its hub. Ask someone from Brooklyn where they want their kids to live when those kids get married and the answer is almost always "Brooklyn." And then look at the cost of housing in Brooklyn. When demand exceeds supply, those doing the supplying can charge whatever they want and people will pay the rate. But as we know, paying that rate is becoming more and more difficult, particularly for young couples. Add in the cost of yeshiva tuition here in NYC and you get a pretty good idea why frum families may be having problems economically. Being in debt is becoming synonymous with living in NYC.

They say that "location is everything." Please, please , someone with their eyes open and who might be just a little bit objective, walk down the central streets in Flatbushor Boro Park and really look at those houses. Many of them have had plastic surgery but they are still "old ladies" at heart. Look at the lot sizes. Look at the inconvenience of alternate side parking. Listen to the constant noise level. Look at the crowded streets. Now walk down the streets of a place like Staten Island. Newer houses here, sometimes double and triple the lot sizes here, no alternate side parking, streets that are walkable in peace, and yet Brooklyn can be 2 or 3 times as expensive when it comes to housing prices. And it is not cheap to live in Staten Island.

Some parts of New Jersey also sit on the top 10 list of expensive places to live. New Jersey taxes, particularly for real estate, are sky high. So moving to New Jersey is not automatically a savings, although there are some places that, even with higher taxes, still represent a bargain when compared to NYC.

What to do? The "obvious" answer is to tell parents whose children are grown up, who are no longer using the yeshivas, that they will have to move out to make room for the younger couples who need yeshiva services. Yeah, that's going to work out really well. Some people have provided an answer by moving into areas of the various boroughs that did not only a few years ago have established frum communities in them--Marine Park in Brooklyn comes to mind. But even in those areas, because they are in NYC, they are expensive to live in--maybe a tad cheaper then Boro Park or Flatbush, but give them a few years.

An even more obvious answer, but one that lots of people don't want to hear, is that we need to spread out more around the country. There are beautiful places to live all over the US, places where the quality of life is actually judged better than in NYC and where the expenses are way lower. And by quality of life I also mean frum quality of life. There are yeshivas all over the country. There are kosher butchers and bakeries all over the country. There are mikvaot galore all over the country.

But there is also something out of town that puzzles many residents of NYC. A town may have only one shul and one yeshiva. "How do they manage that?" I hear all the time. In some cities you may have a few shuls and a few schools, and still the NYC residents scratch their heads in puzzlement. How can you possibly live somewhere where you don't have a choice of shuls to go to? What happens when you have a fight with someone in the shul if you don't have anywhere else to go? There aren't 53 pizza shops and 274 restaurants in those towns. What these people want is NYC and all it represents but not in NYC. Not going to happen.

The baby boomers are being surpassed in size by this youngest generation. People are living longer. Both generations and the interim generation all want to live in the same place. How are they going to do that? A scientific principle says that two objects cannot occupy the same space at the same time, never mind three. Yet, in NYC people are attempting to do just that--fit in twice and three times as many people into an area that is running out of space to hold them.

I don't have an exact figure for the number of frum couples who get married every year here in NYC. If I do just a rough count of the number of catering places I personally know of which make weddings and give those places just 100 weddings each for the year, I'm looking at at least 1500 couples. I could be way off in my figuring and probably am figuring too low. If all of those couples want to stay in their home communities, that is 1500 apartments that have to be available for them. Over the course of three years that is 4500 apartments that need to be found. And these couples are in competition with other couples who are not frum or not Jewish in most of the communities. Double the figures or triple them for the number of couples marrying and you are looking at housing for 9,000 to 13,500 couples over 3 years. And before you pooh pooh my figuring, keep in mind that the younger generation is having much larger families then the present baby boomers did. Those couples who will be marrying are out there in larger numbers.

Rethinking geographic location is something that is becoming necessary. Frankly, and to be a little morbid, when the number of those dying does not equal the number of those young couples starting out, you are heading for a non-existent or very tight housing market. Unless you are going to opt for "forced repatriation" and send all the baby boomers to Florida, those baby boomers are going to be around for a long time--easily another twenty years or more.

And then there is the fact I started out with--that NYC and environs is the most expensive place to live in the US. What would you give to wake up in the morning and not be faced with having to figure out if you are going to make it through the day financially, never mind the rest of your life? What would you be willing to do for financial security and financial peace of mind?

A little note: I was discussing this subject with a student on Monday. He agreed that New York is too expensive. He is married with a child, works full time and is going to school at night. When he finishes college he and his wife are trying to figure out where they will go. They can't stay in Brooklyn. The picture of every set of parents being able to buy a house for all their children is inaccurate. This student and his wife don't have those parents. They are living in a basement apartment in Brooklyn for more than the cost of a mortgage in other places. For this student the conveniences of shopping and the communal "aura" are outweighed by the "convenience" of being able to breath financially.