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I'm living with two roommates in Murray Hill/Kips Bay paying about $2,500 each for a place with amenities. Know a few friends living in LIC and some in the East Village. Hearing from them walking the streets & talking to leasing offices is the best way to find opportunities when they arrive.
Incoming analyst and just signed a place no roommates only myself for $1800 in Astoria, 25min to midtown, look into places in Astoria very safe neighborhoods due to gentrification, you won’t get amenities in these buildings but will save a lot of money
Did you use street easy/apartments.com?
Zillow
Streeteasy > turn off broker fee, you don't have to pay it. Hells Kitchen, Upper West, Upper East, Astoria, will have the most affordable apartments relative to other places in Manhattan.
For a banker I think Hells Kitchen ticks all the boxes, it's safe ( as long as you're far away from times square), close to most banks, and easy to get to anywhere in the tri-state area.
* Looking for fun? HK has lots of bars and restaurants and clubs (albeit more on the gay side)
*Every single train runs through HK. Need to get to Upper West? 123 are here. Need to get to Upper East? Q train takes you to upper east, or you can take RW and transfer at Lex and 54 and take the 6, lots of other options too. Need to get to Brooklyn? Take C to 14th street and now you can take the L. Need to get to Jersey? Port Authority is like a 15 min walk. You can also get to penn station in less than 9 min and you're at Penn Station. Need to get to Long Island? same story. Queens? E train, 7 train at times square, etc. Need to get to JFK? Same story. HK has a lot of yellow cabs just begging you to use them.
* Coming home late but want to save money? Almost every single fking train runs to time square or through midtown. Just get off there and you have a 14 min walk, and 50 bucks in your pocket on uber expenses.
I've heard the same thing about hell's kitchen from a few people, but how many blocks away from Time Square is a good rule of thumb for apartment hunting?
I live on 9th and there are no tourists and I’m near all the trains without having to ever get on/off at Times Square. I would avoid 8th Ave (tourists) and the area around Penn Station and if you need to take the subway to work, try to pick an area where your station isn’t the Times Square. I don’t like 11th because it’s less residential. Would try to stick to between 8th and 10th Ave.
I second all of this. Just locked a spot in HK with a nice building with amenities. Totally worth it and I used StreetEasy
Lifestyle creep is real. Just know you don't have to get a $2750 per person rental. I pay 1100 bucks in Manhattan and have so much more cash to save/invest/blow. But I'm from here so I can stay in places transplants are scared of.
I really feel for you new analysts coming into the city. Rents have moved much more in the past 5 years than your take home has. Keep in mind the move in your base salary from $85k-> 100+ isn't going to mean your take home is higher, they just take it out of your bonus.
For your first two years in the city don't worry too much about how your place looks, just find a place you can sleep well at night and is easy to get to/from work and not too far away from the bars. You gotta enjoy your life after all.
Murray Hill + East Village/Stuy Town going to be your best bet, LES is loud but should be cheap enough. I really would try to avoid Hells Kitchen if you can. Don't even start to look at West Village or Soho.
Good luck - it's definitely a lot harder than it used to be.
People survive on far less
That’s certainly true, but that doesn’t change the fact that the situation for new grads is significantly worse than it was 5-10 years ago.
Hell's Kitchen is just as affordable if not more affordable than Murray hill + east village. What are you talking about lol East Village
It’s affordable… There’s a reason for that. I wouldn’t want to live there, and I don’t know many people who would.
Why not Hells Kitchen?
$700. Live in POVERTY with HOMELESS until you grind even HARDER.
OP - You looking for roommates?
PM me I’m still looking
Your max is 40x so $2.5k. Even in LIC this does not go that far without a roommate (last time I looked LIC was like $3k+)
Get one roommate, two if you're less picky about living situation, and look to spend $2300 or so on a decent place. Try to stay 1 direct subway line from your work - the transfers are where the commute starts getting really long. I think that is more important than living in the nicest area or best nightlife as so much of your time is spent at work right now and you can easily uber or subway anywhere on your 1 or 2 nights out a week.
If you go north of LIC or to even sunny side which is very close to LIC zone bedroom or studio is around 1.7 to 2.1k
I'll definitely echo that you do not want to have to transfer subway lines. Commuting can be enough of a hassle on one subway line let alone adding another one. You'll be doing this twice a day everyday for a while so don't make it worse than it needs to be. Transferring should only be a problem if you're not living in Manhattan though
Why does everyone sleep on financial district? I flex a one bedroom with my roommate for $1,750 per person. Have a doorman, gym, indoor swimming pool, rooftop with water views, plenty of solid enough bars on stone street and surrounding piers, and restaurant scene (some water front ones too & late night options too). Also have Fulton street station within a 5 minute walk so can get literally anywhere in the 5 boroughs by subway.
Will you share building name (or general area)? Sounds great!
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