NYC - Where to Rent for incoming analysts
Hi,
I’m a full time incoming analyst looking to spend like $1500 to $2000 on rent. Living with a roommate in tech who also makes good money (so combined we’d spend $3000 to $4000), but it feels like it’s fucking impossible to find a place. Do people have any suggestions on where to look? Market seems red hot at the moment. My office is in midtown east and I’m looking for a July 1 to august 1 move in. Or should we just try to find another roommate?
Hey man I know someone looking for a roommate in Midtown East
I would look UES. I was in a very similar position (one roomate, same rent range, office in Midtown) and was able to find a decent spot
Are you satisfied with UES? I know the crowd is definitely a bit older. Are there decent food options, grocery stores, social life there or do you feel like you'll always be going south to East Village, LES, Murray Hill on the weekends to do stuff? Also how much do you pay and what amenities does the building come with?
I wouldn't expect you to need to trek all the way from the UES to the East Village to have fun. Plenty of stuff much closer
Personally I've loved UES and wouldn't want to be in other places having seen friends' apartments. Food options/grocery stores are great, and you're never going to feel like there's anything you can't get food-wise. Social life is honestly surprisingly good and I agree with some of these other posts that there are plenty of other great places outside of EV, LES, etc. That said, if you do want to get down there, it obviously takes a bit longer but has never been prohibitory from me going out down there. Roommate and I pay ~$3100/month and have a fully redone kitchen (honestly got really lucky there) with new dishwasher and other appliances. No laundry in-unit/building but I can walk out my door and see two different laundry places so I've never thought about it. Hope that helps
In the same position. Even last month I was looking for places and couldn't really find much. Not sure what to do since my roommate and I are starting in a few weeks and dont want to find a place last minute. Following.
How is long island city for a single person? It seems you can get a nice apartment for the same cost and midtown is only 1-2 subway stops away
Heard its not worth it if you want people in Manhattan to visit
Would recommend any area below UES / UWS and avoid FiDi.
Would look into Hell's Kitchen, Murray Hill, Gramercy, Turtle Bay, StuyTown, Chelsea, East Village, and Soho/Noho to start. StreetEasy is super helpful in terms of finding apartments, so would check that out. Hope this helps!
All of those areas (besides Hells Kitchen and Turtle Bay) are impossible to find places for the past 2-3 weeks that aren't literal 7x7 shoeboxes or flex apartments. I've been looking too and literally 5 new listings max per day get posted on StreetEasy and RentHop now which is why I'm guessing OP made this post
Hells Kitchen over FiDi lmmmmaaooooo…didn’t even have to read your title to know.
Why avoid FiDi? Has some very reasonable spots that have mostly all be redone - so central AC, new appliances, etc. Also you got stone street, and access to all the subways in the city
Dead on the weekends and after 5PM on the weekday
whats wrong with this apt?
https://streeteasy.com/building/35-east-38-street-new_york/3e?featured=1
or this one
https://streeteasy.com/building/305-east-40-street-new_york/5y
you can put up a partial-pressure wall with a door to convert the living room into a 2-bedroom apt
my friend has another similar studio available to rent starting Aug 1st....10th floor of a 15 floor building (not listed on streeteasy yet) near 36th and 3rd ave
Murray Hill - L-shaped studio 520 sqft $2600/month
doorman building, nice lobby
laundry in the basement
rooftop with tables and chairs
renovated kitchen and bathroom, new hardwood floors
downside - the kitchen is small and doesn't have a dishwasher...you must wash dishes with a scrub brush by hand in the sink (tho you probably won't be doing much cooking anyway).
while you theoretically could put up a partial-pressure wall (partial = stops 12 inches from the ceiling) with 2 doors to convert a L-shaped studio like this into a 2 bedroom with a small living room space (room for a couch, coffee table and TV..and maybe a loveseat...with a small table and chairs)...the bedrooms
would be small (11 x 8 each) and the bathroom can only be accessed thru the rear bedroom.
Although a lot of people have been mentioning doing flex, how feasible is it really with WFH? The problem I see is that you wont really have room for a desk (since companies want you to do WFH up until Labor Day + a bit throughout the rest of 2021 and 2022) in an 11 x 8 room along with a bed, dresser, storage space (because no closet)? Also would having to go through someone's bedroom to use the bathroom really work out?
you don't need a big desk....just a standard 3' x 2' will do....there is room to squeeze this into the bedroom...it will be "cozy" but doable.
the flex bedroom could be a little bigger and thus have room for a dresser and closet.
look, its not ideal to flex a 1 bed into a 2 bed, but its doable. or spend a little more and get a studio all to yourself.
As someone thats been living in the city for 4y, that studied in the city, work in the city and just moved apartment in the city I can confirm: to start the best is anything above FiDi and below 28th street. People will tell you that there's cheaper and bigger in midtown and uptown, but the truth is at the end of the day you will party, drink, date and go out in east village and west village. Its NYC don't expect something too big thats for sure, but I have plenty of friends who with 4k for 2beds found greats spots around the areas I described.
The other option that is often overlooked by people that didn't live/grow up in the city is Brooklyn. Its def cheaper and bigger. You will need to commute that's for sure but its an option and depending on what neighborhood (park slope, Williamsburg, greenpoint, prospect height) better that midtown and uptown.
Midtown is the worst by far. I like UWS and why not UEW but midtown is terrible.
Is that 4k for the rent itself or 4k + utilities? Also is it doable to find a place between 3.5-3.9k between FiDi and 38th that's 2bedroom and 1 bath? When looking online it seems like realtors and landlords make places with a jump in quality at exactly 4k
its 4k then add utilities (average of 150 a month with elec + wifi). and yes you can definitely find something in that area for that price tag. There is a threshold at 4k but there are some hidden gems. The secret is seeing a few spots even if you don't like them, speak with the broker during the visit to ask him to show you stuff that isn't yet on the market but that he knows is or will soon be available and matches what you want. Thats the way to do it.
Why does everyone not like Fidi? There are some really nice buildings there.
Completely dead after 6PM and dead on the weekends
I'm seeing very mixed things about Hell's Kitchen online. Its very convenient for my office location(short walk) and it seems like theres a lot going on for social life. However, I also see some things about safety or just people generally just saying don't live there. Any thoughts?
Havent lived there but have been there on multiple occasions. It's relatively cheap, however can be loud and grimey depending on where you are exactly in HK. Also, it's right next to Times Square so you'll often have tourists in the area which can get annoying. You'll also have to go there/ or go through there to get to the subway or to certain shops.
I'm biased since I moved to Hell's Kitchen in late 2020 when I came back to NYC (yes the trough of the rental market where they were practically giving away units - I don't envy you guys now) but I think Hell's Kitchen offers - bar none - the best value in the city. Beautiful luxury buildings and big units for relatively affordable prices, and you're within walking distance of Chelsea and can get to pretty much anywhere else in the city by subway due to proximity to the Port Authority/Times Square stations. Why pay $2.5k for an old, unrenovated, shoebox apartment on the west side in the 20s when you can literally go just 20 blocks north and get a substantially better place + amenities for less money? And unlike UWS/UES/Brooklyn/LIC you'll be close to all your friends who are paying up their ass to live further south. This seems like a no brainer.
I get there's an implicit bias against Hell's Kitchen in particular because of the homeless people, tourists, etc but guess what - NYC ain't safe these days no matter where you go. Homeless and tourists are everywhere. Sure it's worse in Hell's Kitchen but is it *that* much worse to warrant the deals you can get there? No shot in my view. And the culture/restaurant scene in Hell's Kitchen is actually great once you get a couple blocks away from the pure Midtown/Times Square cesspool.
That's good to hear. We found a good place thats on the low end of our budget and the unit itself has nice sized bedrooms and pretty well renovated relative to other stuff we saw. It is an older building and doesn't have those new luxury building type amenities. Also a very convenient walk to the office. Only thing that had me hesitating was the general HK reputation and more recently stuff about crime. Saw a really nice place on our higher end of the budget but also would be more of a commute so I was debating pretty hard between those tradeoffs.
the bias against hell's kitchen is that on top of the issues you stated, its simply not fun compared to the lower part. And when you're 21-25 you can compromise on comfort to have fun and enjoy the city
friends say Bushwick is nice
where specifically in Bushwick? Looking at investment thesis for rents
I live in Murray Hill. All of the cool bars and places to be are in the East Village and I wish I had moved there. Would recommend that area as long as the commute is less than 30 min in the mornings
How much do you pay in rent with utilities in Murray hill. Also how often on the weekends do you go to east village
I'm usually out of the office relatively early on Friday and my Saturdays tend to be free too. So I go out 1-2 times a week. Rent is about 1600 for me. Got a good deal with my move in date. Utilities add about 50 each between my roommates and I.
I moved to the EV in June with a roommate. Prices have risen since then but it’s still affordable if you don’t mind living in a quaint apartment rather than a modern place. I would pick a bad apartment in EV, LES, soho, and tribeca over midtown or UES any day of the week. Being able to walk to EV LES bars and easily get to West side clubs via L train is worth the 10-20 min subway commute to midtown. Ubers on Friday and Saturday nights from midtown/UES to LES are brutal (I’ve seen over $100 from hair of the dog to Murray hill at 3 am) and all my friends not living downtown regret the decision. Then again if you don’t mind dropping $100+ on transportation every time you want to go out and would prefer a nicer apartment go with uptown. Just my two cents dm if you wanna talk
How much are you paying all in? Are you an incoming analyst or are you returning to the city as a 1st soon to be 2nd year? Also, when did you start looking for your apartment? Early May?
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