Should You Leave New York?

Is it a good time to be living in the nation's priciest city? Time Out talks to New Yorkers who did the unthinkable: They fled.

On the heels of the dispiriting news reported last week by the Times that "it takes $123,322 to enjoy the same middle-class life as someone earning $50,000 in Houston," Time Out interviewed three former New Yorkers who bailed on the city for supposedly greener pastures - Chicago, Kansas City, and something called Heartland, Vermont (which was just too Hallmark to be true, so we Google-mapped it, and it may actually be spelled Hartland, but: still cutesy).

So, what made them leave? (Highlights: cramped space, bedbugs, street trash, and pressure - some of our favorite things, really.) And what's so special about where they live now? Apparently, "clawfoot tubs," three bedroom apartments for "$750 a month," and Jameson's on the rocks for $3.75. This is the kind of information that saps us of our will to live, so click to ready TONY's I Had to Leave NYC at your own peril.

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