7. New York-White Plains-Wayne (NY-NJ)
Metro population: 11.5 million
Unemployment rate: 9.3 percent
Cost of living index: 153.5 (100 is average)
“New York is practically like the center of the universe!” Sperling said. “It’s amazing. It’s wonderful. It’s maddening. It’s impossible. But that’s what makes everything possible and why people live five to an apartment to be there!”
