Young people are fleeing New York — and it’s obvious why.
Astronomical property taxes have made raising a family and putting down roots nearly impossible in the tri-state area. As a result, young and well-educated people are fleeing New York in droves in search of warmer and less expensive climates.
The median property taxes for most counties that surround New York City are jaw-dropping. According to data from the Tax Foundation, residents in Nassau County pay $9,289, while homeowners in Bergen County, NJ, pay $9,081. Westchester stood out as the highest in the nation in 2010 with a median tax of $9,945.
Rents in New York City are no better. The average one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan in March cost $2,747 a month, according to CitiHabitats. If you have a child and need a two bedroom apartment it will set you back an average of $3,865. Brooklyn and Queens, once cheaper alternatives, are rapidly catching up with Manhattan rental prices.
Compare these numbers to some of the fastest growing areas in the country and you will see why many people, including Gen Xers and Millenials, are packing up their bags.
Austin, Texas, has a median property-tax rate of $1,985; in Charlotte, NC, it’s $1,964, and in the Raleigh/Durham, NC, region it’s $2,101.
A recent report from the Empire Center for New York Policy shows that the population of New York state is growing older faster than the rest of the nation. And an aging population will make the New York region less competitive economically — which will make it even harder to retain young college grads.
Business leaders are following suit and relocating to more cost-effective regions. Austin has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and has experienced a population explosion. Between 2000 and 2009 that region had a net in-migration of over 36 percent. Nearby Houston grew more than 24 percent.
The Charlotte and Raleigh regions, hotbeds for young professionals and businesses, saw population growth of 31 percent and 41 percent respectively.
So why are young people leaving? The answer is simple: Areas such as these have good-paying jobs with a lower cost of living, which allows this generation and others to work hard but still have enough money in their pockets to enjoy life.
Just as many of us graduated or were looking forward to advancing in the workforce, the Great Recession dramatically threw our own life plans into turmoil.
Now, saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in student-loan debt, we are being forced to consider living elsewhere. Student-loan debt recently surpassed credit-card debt in the United States; young Americans are now saddled with around $1 trillion in school loans.
But those loans are much more manageable when you can buy a beautiful home in North Carolina for $200,000 and pay one-quarter the property taxes.
There’s an impending crisis in this region and many of our leaders are failing to recognize it. The young and emerging middle class is fleeing in droves.
Who is going to pay the property taxes when there is no more middle class in New York City and the surrounding suburbs?
Anthony Figliola is the vice president of Empire Government Strategies, a government-affairs firm. He previously served as deputy supervisor of Brookhaven.