What I also found weird in NYC is that people can be really cagey about their rent, because our have a rent ceiling that most landlords won't let you go past, and that's a multiple of your salary. So if someone's paying X amount of rent, you know that their salary is at least Y. It's really strange.
Really? I didn't notice this at all while living there. And it's also hard to peg someones rent with respect to their salary because some people chose to live beyond their means while others would potentially live 'cheaply' in order to save enough to buy a place.