"Middle class" at 150K/year

Why New Yorkers, with a completely straight face, talk about "affordable housing programs" for people earning in the low six figures:

Living in the city is becoming more unaffordable for the middle class, and not just in trendy Manhattan neighborhoods, where a two-bedroom apartment can cost about $1.5 million or rent for $3,500. Gentrification in parts of Brooklyn, Queens, Harlem and upper Manhattan is putting former middle- and working-class neighborhoods out of reach for many people.

Add a city and state tax burden that can approach 12% of income, and New Yorkers are being priced out of the city, which they don't want to leave.

Unaffordable NY: tough choices at $150,000 (Crain's New York Business)

I would add that since most of us rent, the best and most generous Federal tax deductions available to the middle class typically don't apply to us.