Yes sir, $10K or $15K savings in taxes is a big deal if you are only earning $100K. However, in NYC your bonus five years out of college can easily by $100K in addition to your salary. The "tax" savings now look measly, especially when one compounds for 20 years.
I live there right now and in Manhattan, and I can tell you it is not cheap. I spent three months looking for an apartment and the cheapest I could find outside of Harlem was $1500 to have a 20 minute commute on the 1-2-3 line to the financial district. If you go to Brooklyn, the prices don't get that much better and the commute time gets longer. It costs me $2 for 15 minutes of drying time in my building's laundry room. EVERYTHING is expensive here. The only time things stop being expensive is when the commute time to the financial district is over 45 minutes long [one way].
Maybe as an analyst or a trader your bonus can be that high. On the IT side of things, you get only enough to offset the initial taxes. $100,000 in NY = poverty level.
Midtown west is still probably the cheapest in the city relative to location, there's just nothing out there.
If you really going to make it in this line of business, that is pull in 20K/week then the extra 20 to 50K a year it would cost you to live in NYC should not really, matter. Hey, like they say if you wanna drive a Ferrari you got to pay for the maintenance. Same for NYC.
You're nuts, maybe you went overboard on the high end escorts and the cocaine. One can live very well on 100k a year in NYC, as long as you exercise some fiscal discipline. You do not need a car in NYC, not at all. All those cost savings help pay for the cost of housing. The convenience factor is invaluable, you save a lot of time and time=money. Then there is the networking factor, obviously not free. Maybe you like living in the middle of nowhere, but to say that NYC is the 2nd worst place to live is absurd.