I also live in NYC (Manhattan, specifically), and I read through this with my own lens: married, with a kid, another on the way. I live 13 blocks from my office

I also live in NYC (Manhattan, specifically), and I read through this with my own lens: married, with a kid, another on the way. I live 13 blocks from my office. Some things that cause me grief: 1. NYC's city income tax on top of federal and state tax 2. The competitive public school system that disadvantages many and doesn't appeal to my parental administration efforts either 3. The pay-or-wait-for everything kid-related -- 2s or 3s programs that ask for astronomical amounts of money 4. Swampy summer urban heat island 5. AIR quality that probably isn't as good as it could be. If you ever walk on Madison Ave. during morning or evening rush hour, you've inhaled the avenue-wide plume of diesel smoke that saturates the air In some suburbs things flip in the other direction: 1. Public schools that are supported by high property taxes 2. Rather large fees for relatively shorter commutes --hundreds of dollars per month to commute 40 minutes to/from Grand Central or Penn 3. Lower income tax burden I'm looking at houses in the suburbs now, and what's difficult to quantify is the level of happiness associated with gaining things like fresh air, extra space, a yard for kids to play and keep themselves busy, closer proximity to family (both sides), and etc. I think there's lots of folks who positively and negatively value similar things and happily eat the commute time up (as me time, or personal time) in exchange for the some of the benefits I mentioned.