The thing about NYC is that the high end (and much of Manhattan) is indeed incredibly expensive. And if you don't know NYC, you think that's all that's out there.<p>But New York is huge and you can find a little bit of everything. Brooklyn alone is larger than most large cities, with 2.5 million people (over half the size of metro SF, and about the same as metro Pittsburgh). Everything gets much, much cheaper when you leave the ultra-density of Manhattan. It's like any other city center, just scaled way up.