I don't have the patience right now to look closely at the cnn page, but I think it primarily deals with what it would cost to move to New York now as opposed to what it would cost to move to, for example, Chapel Hill.
Many longtime New Yorkers either bought their homes or apartments long ago or are living in rent-stabilized (and some still in rent-controlled) apartments. I would probably have to pay more rent, not less, if I moved to another city. And I know that there are hundreds of thousands of other New Yorkers for which that would be true.
Similarly, when you post that about transportation, I have to wonder if it is based on comparing what the average New Yorker spends on transportation compared to what the average person in your part of Massachusetts spends. Because relatively few New Yorkers have cars, we probably on average spend a lot less on transportation than people almost anywhere else in the country.
Now if that survey is comparing what it costs a New Yorker with a car for transportation compared with what it costs someone in Massachusetts with a car, then New York is more expensive. And I suspect that's what it is basically doing. It's comparing the cost of the uses of the same types of transportation from one city to another, not what the average New York spends on transportation as opposed to what the average person pays on transportation elsewhere. If so, and I'm pretty sure, it's an apples and oranges comparison.
Even a lot of New Yorkers who do have cars use them relatively rarely compared to people elsewhere so gas costs are much less and wear on the car can be less.
On the relatively rare occasions when I travel to other cities, I do find that many things are cheaper. But I'm also surprised to find that some things are not cheaper, or not much cheaper. Especially if you're a longtime New Yorker and you know where to shop and where to go out to dinner, you can live surprisingly inexpensively here.
And even young people I know who've moved here in recent years without a lot of money have found ways to live here for surprisingly little.
Obviously, it can also be extremely expensive living here. But I think that some surveys can be very misleading.
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