Most Expensive Cities Ranking

The Council for Community and Economic Research has produced its quarterly ranking of the 300 most and least expensive major American cities in which an average cost is given a score of 100.

The Cost of Living Index measures regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures, for professional and managerial households in the top income quintile. It is based on more than 90,000 prices covering almost 60 different items for which prices are collected three times a year by chambers of commerce, economic development organizations or university applied economic centers in each participating urban area. Small differences in the index numbers should not be interpreted as significant.

The ranking doesn't seem terribly surprising, but the breaking out of Gotham's boroughs has a lot of media outlets talking about Brooklyn.

Village Voice:

Sorry, but the idea that neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick, Fort Greene and a handful of others provide you with a lower hit on your wallet is as old as Madonna. In other words, Brooklyn has been Manhattan-ized. To come up with that number, the study focused on things like transportation (that damn $105 montly MetroCard), food, prescription drugs, utilities and the other bills you have to upsettingly pay for. Together, all these total a hefty number that puts us somewhere just above Honolulu. That must mean that newlyweds in Hawaii are coming here for their honeymoons.

New York Observer:

Guess what! All that gentrifying has finally paid off. or those who have been watching rents in many parts of Brooklyn achieve price parity with Manhattan, this doesn’t come as a huge surprise—but still, more expensive than San Francisco? Yes, apparently, we’ve finally taken the not-at-all coveted second place spot. Even all those filthy rich technocrats aren’t enough to bump the Bay Area up to Brooklyn’s status.

Brooklyn Eagle:

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.”