> Just for fun I searched Bloomberg for this phrase: "why do upper middle class people continue to live in overpriced cities despite having all their needs met"

> Just for fun I searched Bloomberg for this phrase: "why do upper middle class people continue to live in overpriced cities despite having all their needs met". The second result was this one: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-12/only-45-p... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-08-12/only-45-p.... Maybe we are more alike than we realize... The article is paywalled, but AFAICT it's not particularly true or relevant. The article you posted is from 4 years ago, and is based on the Fed's annual "Economic Well-Being" report. The most recent one was just released (https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201805.pdf https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/files/2017-repor...), and it shows that ~40 of non-retired adults think that their retirement savings are on track. This comfortably encompasses the upper-middle class. The 2014 report is here (https://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/2014-report-economic-well-being-us-households-201505.pdf https://www.federalreserve.gov/econresdata/2014-report-econo...) and shows worse numbers for savings (the metrics seem to have changed, so I can't make a simple apples-to-apples comparison). AFAICT, the main changes have been to economic optimism and liquidity, both of which are better indicators of the contemporary economy[1] than they are of actual financial stability or level of savings. This is hardly surprising, given that we were still not that far out from a shaky economy in '14.