I'm middle class and lived in Paris. I had rich friends and poor friends. My rich friends owned flats that occupied entire floors of a building. My poor friends got whatever social housing was available. And my middle class friends rented or bought a place in the suburbs with more space. We owned, a relatively small by American standards 55sqm, 3F, flat in the city center. My middle class friends could also rent the same size flat on their salaries but none of them wanted to. They liked their space and garden.
Their is give and take to everything in life. I don't think it's hard to live in Paris if you're in the middle class, but you certainly won't feel middle class doing it.
highly doubt the last decade has been a nice time to be middle class in paros. salaries unlike us major cities never rose and real instate kept increasing. average is 10k sqm which requires you to at minimum make over 100k/year to have a 40sqm flat not in top paris estate
give us more data to understand if you define yourself as middle class.
salary, rent, wealth beside salary. thanks.
People typically move further out so they can afford something larger when they get kids. Since the city is dense you don't have to move very far for prices to drop steeply, unlike sparser cities, so you can still keep your job with a reasonable commute.
I know a lot of people who lived near the center when they were single so they were close to everything, and then moved 15 minutes out when they get kids. Selling those small central apartments give a big boost towards getting a nice home outside the center. Not Paris but the same European layout with dense suburbs, it really isn't that expensive since those dense suburbs are still very close to the city center relative to American sprawl like in silicon valley where you have to drive for an hour to reach a cheap place, in Europe if you drive for an hour you get to the next city so even the cheapest suburbs are much closer than that.
With 2 children you'll need about 65sqm. Hopefully the nursery is cheap compared to other cities -cough London- but it adds up.
Basically you need to be in the upper middle class for a decent life with children in Paris.
Their is give and take to everything in life. I don't think it's hard to live in Paris if you're in the middle class, but you certainly won't feel middle class doing it.