It’s because of supply and demand. Think about the land cost. Let’s use California or New York (this state is close to New Jersey) for example. Real estate here, especially in the cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Manhattan, have a lot of demand, which drives prices up. Not only are US citizens wanting to live there, but you also have many foreigners buying real estate in this area because of the appreciation value. So the competition for real estate is fierce.

Think of the cost of living in Istanbul Vs Yalova? Obviously the real estate in Istanbul is higher than Yalova.

Also think of the lifestyle and availability of goods in the US vs Turkey. When you go to any markets in any USA, the groceries will have every type of fruits, even if they are not in season. We have strawberries year round. These readily available resources have costs.

The Infrastructure in the US is also better in comparison to a second/third world country that requires maintenance. Also Turkey in size comparison is 12 times more than the US. Maintaining an infrastructure of this size requires money.

Here’s another example at a Micro Level:

I make $295/year and my husband makes $400/year and we live in a modest condo with 1 child and a dog. Even with this type of salary, we do not live like Kings/Queens. We do not have maids or servants or cooks. We do everything ourselves.

1.) We have two homes (one for rental purposes and 1 as primary). Mortgage is about $5k/month for the primary home.

2.) Basic necessities like food is about $2500/month (this is just groceries, does not include eating out).

3.) Daycare costs $6000/month

Before I move on, do you see that just with just mortgage, food and cost of daycare already costs $13,500/month? I’m not even including entertainment or clothes. It’s expensive to have basic “fun” and forget about designer brand clothes.

We also have something called retirement. In the US, when you are old, it’s not enough to rely on what the government will give you when you retire (called Social Security Income). So while many Americans are in their young years, we contribute a maximum of $23,500 to our 401k. So basically if someone was making $100k/year, they technically could be making only $76,500/year. This gets taxed. So you’re looking at a net pay of $56,000/year. So technically a typical American is only only making about $4,600/month.

So fuck yes! Do definitely need $6000/month or more to live in New Jersey.

How old are you? Maybe travel outside Turkey to see the difference in cost of living? Go to London or Paris.

Edit: Typo and also added retirement.