EXPENSIVE BROOKLYN! Boro ranks #2 in all of USA

September 6, 2012 By Raanan Geberer Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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Brooklyn is the second most expensive place to live in the entire country — topped only by Manhattan — according to a just-released report.

It’s not the pricey grilled cheese sandwiches ($11 for one with truffle butter and duck fat) or artisinal mayonnaise — it’s all housing, according to the Washington-based Council for Community and Economic Research.

Just behind Brooklyn: Honolulu, San Francisco, San Jose, Queens, and Stamford Connecticut.

The group’s evaluation is based on the cost of people who enjoy “a professional-managerial standard of living.”

The council ranks 300 American cities based on a variety of factors including prescription drug prices, utilities, transportation, grocery prices, as well as housing. Using the number 100 to represent the national average, Brooklyn ranked at 183.4 overall — 129.9 in grorocery items, 126.4 in utilities, 104 in transportation costs and 111.1 in healthcare costs, and a whopping 344.7 in housing. Manhattan’s average was 233.5.

This means that housing costs in Brooklyn are more than three times that of the average American city, which, according to the survey, is someplace like Erie, Pa., or Charlottesville, Va.

Carlo Scissura, president of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, told the Brooklyn Eagle:

“As Brooklynites, we want to be Number 1 in everything, but I don’t think we want to be Number 1 or 2 in this survey.”

He said that it is important for elected officials, organizations like the chamber and civic leaders to push for more affordable housing in the borough.

“We want to keep the middle class here. We don’t want them to leave,” he said.

“Brooklyn is thrilled that so many successful men and women, particularly in professional fields, have chosen to live here — adding to our economic diversity and making it one of the most desirable places on the planet to live, work and play,” Borough President Marty Markowitz told the Eagle. “But we are also mindful that Brooklyn must never be a place of only the very rich or the very poor.”

Frutiger added that varying factors contribute to a high cost of living in different parts of the country. While in the Northeast and California, it’s housing, high food prices are the main factor in Alaska and Hawaii.