New York City. New York State, once you get outside the city, is a fairly average state with a lot of rural area that has moderate-to-low cost of living. I wou

New York City. New York State, once you get outside the city, is a fairly average state with a lot of rural area that has moderate-to-low cost of living. I would venture to say that more land area of California is in the "unaffordable to average people" range than that in New York, either as an absolute or as a percentage of the state.