The housing price bubble was a national phenomenon that can't be pinned on bankers, but New York got hit especially bad, because of Wall Street, and has been slower to right itself than the rest of the country. One-bedroom apartments in Manhattan are still renting above $2000 per month.
Price to rent has little to do with the housing bubble. You can't rent an apartment in the hopes of selling it later for a higher price. High rental prices suggest that prices were high due to consumption demand, not speculative demand.
The best statistic for measuringthe housing bubble is (Price to own) / (price to rent). Typically this quantity remains flat, but goes up during bubbles.
Prices going up because everyone wants to live in manhattan == not a bubble.
And if you know anything about academia, you'll know that you do have to be pretty much a star to achieve even a middle-class income trajectory relative to age.
I know a little about academia, being a postdoc myself.
Academia is a tournament. The winners get a solidly middle class salary, excellent benefits and "never lose your job ever" security. Note: middle class, not rich. You won't get an apartment overlooking central park (and neither do most finance people), but you will get a house.
The losers of the tournament are not academics; they wind up becoming quants, actuaries, programmers, etc, and typically make more money than the winners.
So yes, academics do get a middle class salary. They probably could get an upper class salary elsewhere, but I never disputed that.
Price to rent has little to do with the housing bubble. You can't rent an apartment in the hopes of selling it later for a higher price. High rental prices suggest that prices were high due to consumption demand, not speculative demand.
The best statistic for measuringthe housing bubble is (Price to own) / (price to rent). Typically this quantity remains flat, but goes up during bubbles.
Prices going up because everyone wants to live in manhattan == not a bubble.
And if you know anything about academia, you'll know that you do have to be pretty much a star to achieve even a middle-class income trajectory relative to age.
I know a little about academia, being a postdoc myself.
Academia is a tournament. The winners get a solidly middle class salary, excellent benefits and "never lose your job ever" security. Note: middle class, not rich. You won't get an apartment overlooking central park (and neither do most finance people), but you will get a house.
The losers of the tournament are not academics; they wind up becoming quants, actuaries, programmers, etc, and typically make more money than the winners.
So yes, academics do get a middle class salary. They probably could get an upper class salary elsewhere, but I never disputed that.