$$$Price on NYC living$$$

if you want to live nice and yet cheap, you should look at Astoria. I pay $600 for my share of rent and utilities.

It's not Manhattan, but it's still NYC--and it's nice.

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Updated On: 7/31/05 at 07:39 PM

I found my roommate on craigslist and we get along great. My room is bigger than hers though, so I pay a little more than she does. But her rent is less than $1000 a month, on the Upper West Side.

Just in general, how hard is it to find living in New York City? I'm considering moving there after I graduate college...

I hear it's beyond impossible. Is it really THAT difficult?

I have a rent-controlled place. $1900 a month on the Upper West Side.

Updated On: 8/2/05 at 09:17 AM

Craigslist is where I found my apt.

You can find a one bedroom apt in Astoria for $900 plus utilities.

I live in a nice sized 4 bedroom apt--which is rare. So, my rent is $500. The rest I listed covers electricity, gas, and cable TV and internet. Getting to split the last part 4 ways makes things very cheap indeed!

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Astoria is a 20 min subway ride to Times Square (which is nothing). Astoria is a lot closer to TS than Washington Heights or Inwood, which are both less expensive areas at the North tip of Manhattan.

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BUT, you can buy cheaper daily newspapers for 25c to 50c and some are free

and, you can buy a monthly metro card for $76 that pays for itself if you ride it a lot

and if you have roomies, you only pay a portion of the internet cable cost

and you shouldn't eat at McDonalds anyway!

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NYC is very expensive.

Updated On: 8/2/05 at 07:19 AM

If you're creative, you can save money in certain ways.

Read the NY Times for free online.

Use your Unlimited Metrocard as often as possible (avoid cabs).

Shop at Westerly Health Food Store, where you get a 10% discount if you're a performer.

Subscribe to a papering service for free/low cost theatre tickets.

Live in Queens if Brooklyn and Manhattan are out of your price range (I cannot believe how many of my friends spend 75% of their paychecks on rent, and then complain about not having any $)

Go to bars during Happy Hour- almost every bar in NYC has it.

Curb your addiction to $7 Frappucinos and Jamba Juices.

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I live along the Harlem/Washington Heights border. With rare exceptions, the train service is super reliable, even late at night. It stops at far too many stations but even with that the trip to midtown is never more than 30 minutes.
And my rent is SUPER cheap and rent-stabilized. It's not the best neighborhood but it is just that: a neighborhood. Everyone knows everyone (and it would help if I spoke Spanish better) and there's actually a fair amount of safety in that.

at the risk of sounding like the broken record -- do not discount Jersey City -- you are 8 minutes to World Trade/Lower Manhatten, 12 minutes to West Village and 20 minute to mid-town (33rd/Street and Broadway) on the PATH subway for only $1.20 versus the NYC transit at $2.00).

Yet somehow you say JC to someone in "the city" and they look at you and "apologize" -- it really cracks me up because I think -- OK -- I am 4 blocks from the river with an unobstructed view of NY Harbor and the Statue of Liverty -- you look at an airshaft, it took me 10 minutes to get to this restaurant and it took you over 30 -- I have over 1800 square feet of living space and you have 1/4 to 1/3 of that and you are apologizing to me because my area code is 201 and yours is 212 and I can save enough to have a car????

I am fortunate enough to own my unit/building, however rents in the Downtown area are in line iwth the outerbouroughs. Downtwon JC (Grove Street/Van Vorst Park and Hamilton Park) has gone through a MAJOR renaissance in the past few years with renovations of turn of the centruty brownstones and many bistros, pubs, restaurants.

On the Hudson are also many full service highrises, etc for those that prefer that style of living -- you can always see/find shares that are in line with what others here have posted.

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i work in JC...it's great. were it not for my roomie and the expense of moving again, i'd consider it.

i lived in washington heights for a while as well. it was fine...and it's true about how knowing everyone makes it safe. that and the fact that many of those neighboorhoods are very faimly oriented, even though that looks culturally different than one would see in suburban America.

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