Being able to work within a realistic family budget has
become an increasingly important part of modern living for many Metairie residents.
Metairie’s cost of living may not have been exploding —but most people are
keeping an eye on it anyway.
The lingering effects of the last decade’s financial dislocations—combined
with the slow-motion recovery from the Great Recession—have made monitoring
expenses a practical necessity. The wolf doesn’t actually have to be at the
door for that more cautious attitude to have developed. Consumer optimism may
be on the rise, but it’s a pretty gentle incline. In any case, it does seem that
spending on frivolous knickknacks is becoming a rarer diversion.
Into that general climate comes last week’s news item. It’s
one that could bring some of the more frugal Metairie residents a slight degree
of comfort, in that it has to do with the exorbitant cost of living in places
other than Metairie. The news comes by way of global financial services giant
UBS—the Swiss multinational which is the largest wealth management firm
anywhere, period. It’s also an outfit that is not well known for its modesty: the
UBS website’s “About Us” tab points to themselves as being the Best Bank in Switzerland and the Best Global Bank, in that order.
BloombergBusiness quotes
them as having announced the statistics for the cost of living in cities across
the globe. They emerged with the finding that there are three cities that are clearly
at the head of the pack.
No one in Metairie could be too surprised that two of them
are in Switzerland (Zurich and Geneva). The two are said to “top the list of
the world’s most costly cities.” Back in January, the Swiss central bank
scrapped its currency ceiling, which has since caused its currency, the franc,
to leapfrog to record heights against the Euro (and, we are left to assume, the
dollar—and all the others).
In a horizontal bar chart “based on the cost of a basket of 122 goods and services” that accompanies
the article, we find that Zurich is the most expensive place on Earth, closely
followed by Geneva and the third city. But further reading reveals that this presentation
is highly suspect. It must be some kind of Swiss pride in being a really really expensive place to live, since City
Number Three turns out to be an even more
really really expensive place—if you
take rent into account! And why wouldn’t
you take rent into account?
And the third city is not even in Switzerland!! It’s right here
in the good old U.S. of A!
Where else but …The Big Apple! San Franciscans have a legitimate
beef with their verdict, but they’d have to take it up with UBS (who apparently
doesn’t get out to the West Coast often). All they know is that a two-bedroom
apartment in NYC averages $4,320 a month—compared with a paltry $2,390 in
Zurich. The basket of goods and services (it runs to about $3,500 per month in each
of the three cities) gets drowned by that Manhattan rent tsunami.
It’s almost enough to make any Metairie resident feel much
better about our local cost of living—and our Metairie real estate bargains,
too, of course. Call me for more about those!
The culture of our city has so much to offer... Love our city, New Orleans.
Questions about buying or selling a home?
Call Terez B. Harris
504.297.2619
View Homes For Sale in Metairie
View Homes For Sale in New Orleans
Call Terez B. Harris
504.297.2619
View Homes For Sale in Metairie
View Homes For Sale in New Orleans
Terez B. Harris
Terez Harris NOLA Realtor Group
Terez Harris NOLA Realtor Group
(504)297-2619
TerezHarris@kw.com
Terez B. Harris Terez Harris NOLA Realtor Group 504-297-2619 www.TerezHarris.com
Keller Williams Realty New Orleans 8601 Leake Ave. New Orleans, LA 70118 504-862-0100
Keller Williams Realty New Orleans 8601 Leake Ave. New Orleans, LA 70118 504-862-0100
Each office independently owned and operated. All brokers and agents licensed in the state of Louisiana.
