Why don't new Analysts move to NJ instead of NY for cheaper rent?
I'm an incoming analyst starting at a NY BB this July, and I'm looking for apartments near the area. I come on here a lot and I see that the vast majority of grads in my shoes typically get a roommate and also prefer to live in NY. I don't want to live with a roommate, but that also means I'm going to be subjugated into living in a shitty studio if I choose to move to NY ($1800 budget). I started looking at apartments across the Lincoln Tunnel in NJ, and I'm finding much better places that are also cheaper. Why don't people regularly choose to live there instead of Murray Hill, Midtown, etc.? I get that it is a slightly longer commute, but besides that, is there anything else that's not clicking?
It’s mostly the commute, both for work and for going out. When you are working a bunch of hours you don’t want to spend 45+ mins commuting. Additionally, when going out/exploring the city, etc you want to be close to the areas you enjoy. It is nice to have a “home base” in the city. You can meet friends for brunch, have a few drinks, then walk back to your place and relax/hang out and then go back out at night. It’s much harder to do when that requires a commute to NJ (or finding somewhere to be for those middle hours). So I would say work life balance and social life (and some conveniences as well). But it all depends on what you enjoy doing, etc.
The path train from Hoboken or JC is literally 10-15 minutes. Not that bad.
Yes Hoboken to 33rd is 15 mins (+5 mins wait, maybe less). Then you have to get to your office or where you are meeting your friends, and again, you don’t have a “home base”. You also have to make sure the schedules line up, on weekends after midnight you have some long waits (30-40 mins in between trains). But I don’t mean this to sound like it’s not possible or crazy, it is purely a convenience thing, I’m not saying it is a necessity. But when I was younger (just starting my career) I prioritized location over “niceness” of apt, others choose differently.
Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not really a "nightlife" type of guy, so I thought that was the primary appeal of living in the city.
Even without the nightlife. There is still museums, Broadway, some of the best restaurants, etc. Also, if you are single and looking to date, nyc will offer more options (people, things to do, etc). I would just consider what you think you’ll spend your free time doing and then see if you can make that work in NJ. Even things like pickup basketball games, or going for a run, are much easier to do in NYC (more gyms with courts, the people from work or just friends tend to live in the city). If most of what you want to be doing is in nyc, you will definitely feel the commute time and inconvenience. If you prefer to spend most of the time in your apt, or if you like what NJ has to offer for your social life and enjoyment then you’ll be fine there.
EDIT: and the above is just around your social life. As others have mentioned, being close to work when working a ton of hours makes life much easier. Finding transportation, getting stuck with unreliable service, and honestly just leaving the office and wanting to be home quickly but having to take a 30+ min cab/subway/etc really drains you.
Yea im not tryna bring a girl all the way back to NJ ya feel?
Everyone I know who has tried this and worked in IB (~7 people) has moved within 1 year. PATH not reliable, ubers didn't want to leave Manhattan late at night, etc.
Why are you opposed to a roommate? For $1800 split you could do pretty well. You will rarely be home between banking and some social life, just find a roommate for the first 2 years at least.
I've just had bad experiences with roommates so far, and I don't want to deal with that along with the stress of work. Although, I'll try to give it another shot, and if it doesn't work out, I'll try something else.
Fair point. If you are really opposed to roommates you could raise your budget a bit, up to ~2100 you will still cover 40x rent on base salary alone.
The few hundred dollars a month will make 0 difference over the long term (especially if you can save most of your bonus) but being in a bad living situation, whether roommate stress, long commute, or terrible studio, will really compound a very stressful job.
Long Island City is better IMO if you’re in midtown.
Because as a junior banker, especially one just beginning your career, NJ fucking sucks dude. You're far, your commute isn't 100% reliable, it's harder and more costly to actually do things you want to do with people in the city, and the wins of close proximity to where you work (even if a shorter MTA commute) are gone. I remember hearing about how a first year would be rushing to make it back home for fear of missing the last train on the PATH or how he'd never be able to make it out to do anything with his friends. NJ blows. Don't sacrifice the experience that you've earned for saving a couple of dollars that will be inconsequential in the grand scheme of things.
How about for incoming SA at Goldman? The office is on the southern tip which makes commuting from midtown hard (I think? No experience with New York). So is Jersey City an option then? I hear they have GS-exclusive ferries that will take you either way in 10 min?
Why would you live in midtown if you're SA at GS? The office is at 200 West. Look for a spot in fidi or tribeca/village. Living in true midtown sucks ass anyway.
Midtown definitely isn’t a “desired” place to live in NYC. If you are at GS as the other person said, tribeca (expensive) is your best bet. Fidi is relatively cheap, or soho, west village are also good options - I consider these much better areas than midtown. But yes, the commute will be shorter from NJ to GS than to midtown.
To both of you, thanks for the input. I largely characterized the middle strip of the island as midtown since I’m very unfamiliar with NYC, but now that I’m looking at a map it seems to encompass Murray Hill, Chelsea, etc.
From your responses, it seems the south western strip is the way to go (West Village, Soho, Tribeca, FiDi). Any input on choosing from these four besides price which you’ve already mentioned?
Depends on what you are looking for but some rough metrics:
1) distance to office: tribeca/Fidi tied (obviously depends where in those areas) then soho, then west village. From west village you are looking at ~15 mins on the subway, I would prefer to be somewhere walkable.
2) price - here fidi is a fair bit cheaper, all of the other 3 are expensive with tribeca probably being the most expensive.
3) social/nightlife - here I’d probably go with west village mostly because of the convenience. You can get subways uptown relatively easily, still walking distance to east village, and I prefer the food and bars around Greenwich village/west village area. That said soho and Tribeca are a close second. Fidi lags a bit behind (pretty quiet on weekends, not really any “great” restaurants and further away from Broadway/museums/etc.)
With the budget stuff you also need to consider how nice the buildings are and what amenities you are looking for. Tribeca and Fidi tend to have newer buildings, so more of the comforts (A/C, dishwasher, etc) while west village has older buildings.
I can offer more advice if there are specific things you are concerned about or looking for (distance to airport, areas to workout, parks, etc).
Why is Midtown not generally desired?
You couldn’t name more expensive areas than Tribeca, West Village and Soho, Fidi is fine for cost but eh otherwise. Maybe Chelsea, LES.
I would go as far as saying this isn't specific to NY but applies to doing IB in any city in the world. Living close to the office is more than worth the difference in rent when you are working long hours / pulling all nighters or even just to be able to actually enjoy your free time (going out, partying, etc.) without losing all your time to commutes or having to worry about late night transportation. It's very short sighted to live far away unless unless you have a strong reason to do so. The amount you are saving likely won't make a difference in the long run, but that choice will definitely make your experience considerably worse. Even if you have a strong preference for living alone, prioritizing location is the way to go. You likely won't spend that much time there anyway - it will be mostly a place to sleep and store your stuff. You don't need a big place.
For this $1800 budget what do you think is the best amount of roommates. I hear 2 others pretty often.
Do you think 3 roommates is too many?
Personal preference. If you’re getting roommates just for the cost savings, would only have one. If you enjoy the social aspect of roommates and having built in people to live with then two when you’re young. I’d suggest living with people who have similar lifestyle / work hours.
I've seen some pretty nice 1 bedrooms, not studios, in Hell's Kitchen for 1800 and less.
if you are looking for cheaper options then consider brooklyn or upper manhattan...as a new yorker i can not think of anything worse then living in NJ.
For an office in Midtown, is Murray Hill still the typical place to look? Not familiar at all with NYC neighborhoods and geography but I saw in past threads recommending keeping first year analyst rent to ~$1500 but that seems to not have many options but I was also looking at walkable distances.
Murray Hill is still a popular spot for people right out of school. Just depends on what you are looking for, it feels like a college/party area.
I would say budget $1500-2000, but almost everyone has a roommate at these prices
Thanks for sharing. This is helpful color to me and hopefully the OP
For what it is worth, in trying to respond to your question of why don’t analysts move from NY to NJ, I think for those who work in NY, there is a meaningful benefit in living as close as possible to the work place
If you're office is in Fidi the PATH is really clutch and probably the same time / cost as it would take to get from other Manhattan spots (murray hill, east village, etc) to your office. If you're office is in Midtown, it's going to be a pain transferring from the PATH to the subway and then to the office. A lot more variables in your commute time as you could just miss both trains and wait a full 10 min wait for both a PATH and subway, adding 20 minutes to your expectations
Does firms not reimburse for uber, if I'm going to NJ? I was thinking of living in exchange place after joining GS full time, seems like the commute is only 20ish minutes.
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