what's it like living in New York?

[familyfarm]

Hi, we are considering a move to New York and have a young DC who is 4, so ready to start school. What's it like living in New York? How does it compare to London?

Depends on your budget. Don't even think of doing Manhattan if your household income is less than $300k a year. Don't move over to the area if they offer less than $150-200k. It isn't cheap here.

And bear in mind they start school a year later here, so unless you go into private pre-school, is another year until your DC would start kindergarten (which has pluses and minuses)

Don't even think of doing Manhattan if your household income is less than $300k a year.

I would say that is the absolute minimum if you have a child. Obviously people live in NYC on way less but I wouldn't move there knowing nothing about the city and the schools without a big and substantial package.

You must have good health insurance as part of your package. If this is a corporate move, I would also ask for help with identifying a school. Although in NYC your child probably still has a year of non public school to go. So he would go into pre-K which is sometimes offered in public schools but more likely private. Pre-K is usual in private schools but they can be fairly hard to get into in some areas of NYC.

This is all presuming you are moving on a package. If you are moving to take fairly run of the mill jobs and have the visas then living in NYC will be very expensive.

It's fabulous. I lived in NYC for eleven years, and now in the suburbs of CT with two children. We lived in four places in Manhattan. Nolita was most fun, but that was before children.

NYC is undeniably expensive. Parts of Brooklyn can be more affordable, but you may encounter school issues in the more affordable parts (unless you're automatically planning to go private).

When does your child turn 5? They might qualify for kindergarten if five before 12/31/2016 for certain school districts (I know scarsdale has that as its cut off).