Paradise Lost

A few excerpts from a commentary titled "Our Side of Paradise" published last week in Forbes. The author is a soon-to-be-NYU graduate. She provides some insight into the minds of other students now trying to find their way in the post-college world.

[U]nlike the rest of the responsible adult population, fear of unemployment among recent college grads is not quite as evident as one might expect. For a generation trying to find its place in the job market, the excuse of a "bad economy" has actually been a relief -- even a breath of fresh air -- for recent grads. At least for some of them. The post-graduate summer for recent NYU alums has been freckled with rooftop barbecues, typical bar gatherings on Manhattan's Lower East Side and apartment parties in Brooklyn.

And!

Several weeks ago, during cocktail hour with some new acquaintances, the subject turned, inevitably, to unemployment. Once it was established that nearly everyone just graduated from NYU, the dreaded question was posed: "What are you doing now?" Financially speaking, the answers were unsurprising: freelance photography, an unpaid internship, waitering. And yet no one seemed to mind that income was slim to none and the jobs unassuming. "The economy's bad," someone said.

The thing is, some lucky (some may say "spoiled") recent college grads are OK with the idea of unemployment--at least temporarily. As a generation once defined by SAT scores and the number of clubs on our resumes, we have found ourselves suddenly free of the conventions of school and the pressures of finding a "good" job. "We're young. We should enjoy not having a lot responsibility," a friend recently told me.

And!

In June of this year, I moved into an apartment in Brooklyn with several recent NYU grads and spent the summer interning and finishing up one last course. One of my roommates, who graduated in May, spent the summer in a part-time, paid internship. Another was able to find a few freelance editing jobs earlier in the summer, and another has yet to find any job at all. But it's not the end of the world that none of us are able to fully afford rent.

That's because, thankfully, our parents can.

And!

Yes, our generation has traditionally been criticized as selfish, spoiled and coddled by boomers, but we aren't the only generation to have this experience. Flip through the pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "lost generation" masterpiece This Side of Paradise, and you'll find the relevant tale of the young Amory Blaine, who hauntingly reflects a generation privileged with minimal responsibility and a sense of exciting uncertainty.

The full article is here.

Noted

Forbes released their annual list of most expensive zip codes.

How a prolonged decline in the finance sector will affect next year's list is unknown, but there's already been slowing in prime areas around New York that depend on Wall Street cash. Amagansett (11930), on Long Island, home to mansions, sailboats and big cars, fell $375,000 this year to $1.675 million. Great Neck, N.Y., (11024)--the model for F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby--on the landed North Shore, dropped $310,000 last year to $1.03 million.

Crain's broke it down for us.

[Long Island] claimed five of the Top 25 wealthiest ZIP codes in the country . . . Two of the Top 25 were in Manhattan, and one was in Westchester. The rankings were based on 2007 median home prices.

Taking the cake for New York state was Mill Neck, ZIP code 11765, in Nassau County, which ranked third overall with a median sales price of $3 million. Water Mill, ZIP code 11976, in Suffolk County ranked fifth with a median sales price of $2.7 million, and Wainscott, ZIP code 11975, in Suffolk County ranked eighth with a median home price of $2.6 million.

Manhattan joined the list at No. 14 with TriBeCa, ZIP code 10013, which had a median sale price of $2.2 million in 2007. ZIP code 10007, also in TriBeCa, came in 17th with a median sales price of nearly $2 million. Bridgehampton in Suffolk County, Purchase in Westchester County and Old Westbury in Nassau County came in 19th, 20th and 22nd, respectively.

Noted

Mayor Bloomberg is the 8th wealthiest person in America with a net worth of $20 billion. (Forbes)

Newsflash: New York is expensive (aka, we're No. 1!)

According to Forbes:

New York City's got fashionable Fifth Avenue, trendy Tribeca and an oasis in Central Park. To enjoy those perks, residents pay up.
The Big Apple topped a new list of America's most expensive cities, with a measured cost of living surpassing that of Houston, Boston and Washington, D.C. The culprit? High rent: $4,500 a month on average for a two-bedroom, unfurnished luxury apartment.
Los Angeles comes in second place. Its residents can partly blame a long, expensive commute. The average driver there spends 72 hours a year stuck in traffic delays, and, as of July 21, the cost of a gallon of regular gas was $4.46.

To determine the U.S. cities where the cost of living is highest, the London office of Mercer, an American human resources consulting company, measured the prices of the same basket of goods in 253 of the world's cities. The basket is composed of over 200 products, representative of executive spending patterns and including everything from rent for a luxury apartment to the cost of a fast-food hamburger.
Location has a lot to do with why New York and Los Angeles top the list.
In New York, the need for more homes has been increasing since the mid-1970s, says Edward Glaeser, an economist at Harvard University.
"Before 1970," he says, "workers in some sense were paid a premium to live in New York." This, says Glaeser, was due to its reputation for crime and dirtiness. "Now, people pay a premium to live there."
The change happened when the city began to experience robust economic growth that's still occurring, despite some hiccups along the way. Even though business is increasingly global, New York is a center for industries that produce ideas, like finance and publishing, notes Glaeser.
"You don't see anyone relocating to South Dakota," he says. "The idea now is that you become smart by hanging around other smart people, which New York has in abundance. That's why it's been able to thrive."

Related:

Actually, New York is cheap (Curbed)

[Image via New York]