Where should I live in NYC? $5K - $6K per month budget
Will be moving to NY from the west coast and looking for suggestions. Won’t have a ton of time to get a feel for the different areas before deciding on a lease.
I’d rather have more space and a nicer & newer unit/building than be in an expensive/prestigious area and sacrifice on the quality of the unit. Office is in midtown and so quicker commute would also be preferable.
Appreciate any suggestions / insights understanding it’s not a ton to go off.
I would start your search on StreetEasy. Midtown itself has some nice buildings with amenities, but it isn’t where I would pick to live.
On a $5-6k budget, assuming a 1 bedroom, you should have many options of “nice” buildings without sacrificing location either.
If your building is midtown east then either upper east or east village (I would vote for east village) would be decent options. Also consider the flatiron/Greenwich village/union square area (lots of subways and convenient, also nice area and nice apts)
If midtown west then UWS, but you could go all the way down to tribeca (newer construction there) and be fine from a commute perspective.
If it were me, I’d do east village, flatiron, or tribeca.
Super helpful, thanks. Seems like most do not suggest living in midtown - why is this if the buildings/amenities are solid?
Midtown is touristy and very “corporate”. So close to 5th ave you’ll have lots of tourists walking around the shops all the time, the restaurants (although some great upscale places) are geared toward tourists, a fair bit of hotels, and there isn’t much nightlife. Then couple that with the high % of office buildings, it creates a neighborhood that won’t be catering to you. So you end up with a neighborhood that doesn’t feel like “home”, basically all the stuff around you will be geared toward tourists and employees, and at night when people leave the office it’s mostly just quiet.
If your budget was lower and had to make the choice then that’s one thing, but you don’t really. People usually move to nyc to enjoy the “real nyc” and that is hard to find in midtown.
If you walked around midtown on the weekend you would understand. It's touristy, best bars and restaurants in my opinion are downtown, decent amount of homeless (more noticeable than most areas), and lack of green space/parks/etc unless near central park. Would suggest making at least one trip here to check out some neighborhoods as each have their pros/cons. One neighborhood that has a bunch of new buildings and quick commute to midtown is Long Island City but not a huge fan of the area.
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