| New York City prices up by 14% since last year |
| Written by ISABEL VINCENT and MELISSA KLEIN |
| Monday, 02 May 2011 04:15 |
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The price is not right. In addition to skyrocketing rent and gas prices, New Yorkers are being nickel and dimed to death, shelling out 21 cents more for a box of Corn Flakes, 29 cents more for a six-pack of beer, and about a buck extra to go to the movies. It even costs more to treat a headache than it did in 2010. Costs are creeping upward for everything from a coffee-cart cup of Joe to a carton of milk to a TV dinner. A Post analysis found that rent has risen 5 percent and a sampling of New Yorkers’ common purchases have jumped about 14 percent. The average price of a regular gallon of gas in New York City was $4.21 Friday, compared with $3.08 a year ago, according to the American Automobile Association. “I’m not going to be driving over the summer,” fumed Rutgers University Professor Elizabeth Grosz, 58, who said she spends $18 a day driving from Union Square to her job at the New Jersey college. She said her pay has been frozen for three years.
Rents are climbing, too. The average price of a one-bedroom apartment in a Manhattan doorman building last month was $3,529 up from $3,360 a year ago, according to The Real Estate Group New York. When her landlord hiked the rent on her Manhattan apartment by $140 a month, 26-year-old Anna Rygiel said she decided to flee to Brooklyn. She also said groceries cost about $20 more a week than they used to. “I kind of hop around to get a better deal,” she said after shopping at the Whole Foods in Union Square. Birtukan Assefa, 29, a social-work student at Hunter College, said she has cut back on her drinking — of milk. “I don’t drink milk anymore the way I used to! It’s too expensive,” she said. Upper West Side resident Ana Catalina Vargas, 28, said she forgoes fruit because it’s too pricey. But LA transplant Jenny Bahn, a 27-year-old model and writer who has been living in the city for a year, said she has grown used to paying more. “I just accept the fact you’re going to bleed money,” she said. TRANSPORTATION Monthly unlimited MetroCard 2010: $89 15-gallon gas fill-up 2010: $46.20 ($3.08/gal. regular) UTILITIES January average Con Ed apartment bill 2010: $65.19 CLOTHING J. Crew cotton women’s shirt 2010: $69.50 Boys’ blue jeans 2010: $24.50 Victoria’s Secret cotton panties 2010: 5 for $25 RENT Average Manhattan one-bedroom, doorman building 2010: $3,360 ENTERTAINMENT Cable/Internet bill 2010: $122 Movie theater ticket 2010: $12 GROCERIES 4-pound chicken 2010: $7.08 ($1.77/pound) 1 pound ground beef 2010: $3.59 Head iceberg lettuce 2010: $2.16 One dozen large eggs 2010: $2.67 Chunk light tuna 2010: $1.74 Frozen chicken dinner 2010: $4.79 5 pounds sugar 2010: $4.38 Kleenex tissues, 200-count 2010: $2.58 1 can coffee 2010: $5.82 Advil 200-count 2010: $9.54 Orange juice 64 oz. 2010: $4.94 Half gallon whole milk 2010: $2.47 2-liter Coke 2010: $2 Loaf white bread 2010: $2.28 1 pound bananas 2010: 85¢ 6-pack Heineken 2010: $10.70 18-oz. Corn Flakes 2010: $5.38 FAST FOOD Pizza Hut 12-inch pie 2010: $11.86 Medium coffee, street vendor 2010: $1 Quarter Pounder with cheese 2010: $3.92 Bagel at Ess-A-Bagel 2010: 85¢ Leaving out rent, here’s what you would have paid for one of all these items: 2010 TOTAL: $543.99 DIFFERENCE:$78.38 Plus, rent went up +5% For more Times Square articles like New York City prices up by 14% since last year please visit the NYC Stories Section of TimesSquare.com |
