Housing affordability is closely tied to the availability of cheap, developable land, and that's in very short supply in the New York metro area. Nearly all the land within a reasonable commuting distance to Manhattan was long ago snapped up and built up.
But the city still attracts new residents; the metro area's population ballooned by more than 2 million people between 1999 and 2010. That's like adding a city the size of Houston to New York's residential rolls in 20 years.
The metro area has a great number of wealthy residents, but many others are barely scraping by. The median income is only a few thousand dollars above the national median and the cost of living is much higher -- especially housing.
