San Francisco's rental prices may outdo New York City's, but a new report by major international bank UBS says that New York City is now the most expensive city in the world to live in. Oh, wonderful. It isn't just the city's soaring property prices that have steered it towards its new qualifier; it's also the city's cost of goods and services and low after-tax wages that contribute to New York's soul-shattering expense, the Wall Street Journal reports (h/t TRD). While global cities Zurich and Geneva outpace New York in their cost of goods and services, the city's burdensome rents tipped the scale in New York's favor for the title of World's Most Expensive City.
World currency and wages has a lot to do with New York's takeover (Hold on, this gets technical): the Swiss National Bank's decision to discontinue its minimum exchange rate made Zurich and Geneva markedly less expensive than they were last year. Wages in the Swiss cities and in New York also far exceed wages in other world citiesaccording to the survey, New Yorkers need to work about 24 hours to earn enough to buy an iPhone 6, compared to workers in Shanghai, who would have to clock 334.2 hours before being able to do the same.
Other American cities to top the list include Chicago, which came in at 7th place, Miami (11th) and Los Angeles (13th).
· The Most Expensive Place in the World to Live [WSJ]
· Surprise! NYC is world's most expensive city [TRD]
· New York Is Still the Second Priciest U.S. City For Renters [Curbed]
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