Renting a studio vs. living with roommates (NYC)

Sup y'all,

I'm currently living in a 3BR in Brooklyn with a couple of roommates from college. Now I'm thinking about getting my own place (renting not buying) in either Brooklyn/Queens or Jersey City/Hoboken. I'd like to live in Manhattan but I don't want to spend half my monthly net income on rent for a studio (I'm in my second year in Big 4 Advisory).

I've never lived completely on my own before so I'm not sure what it would be like. I want to live on my own because I'm becoming more of a clean freak than I once was and my roommates can be slobs. Also I have the money to get my own place so I don't see any financial reason to still have roommates. I'm mostly concerned about whether I'll get lonely/weird living alone and buy a cat or something equally ridiculous. BTW I'm turning 24 this year.

Those who have experience with this, I'd like you to share what you think is better: a studio/1BR outside of Manhattan or living with the homies in a 3BR in Manhattan.

Any replies will be appreciated!

 
Best Response

I love living alone. I'm a decent bit older than you now but i've never had a roommate (other than a GF) since college and I personally much prefer the privacy. My first apt in NYC was an awful studio in hells kitchen at 23 and it was awesome despite being a shithole. That said, it does definitely make socializing harder unless you put in the effort. You can't just walk in and see what your roommate is doing. You need to make sure you stay in touch with your friends, what they are doing, invite people over, etc. If you make that effort, it won't matter. It's people not willing to make the effort that suffer. But the privacy of living alone is more than worth the extra cost IMO.

 

If we're speaking about the cheapest possible apartment you can get in Manhattan - I've seen people who with room mates pay $1100/month while the cheapest studios go for about $1800. Both of these are at the LOW end of what you typically find (when I lived with room mates I paid $1500/month and people that lived by themselves paid $2300). So, about $700-800 difference. Our cable/utilities bill together didn't account for more than $150/month for three people, because many nicer apartments offer a lot of stuff for free. Living with room mates, at least from personal experience, would make you want to go out more often - both out to restaurants to eat and to the bars. So if you're someone that gets a bit lazy to go out on your own but easily persuaded, having room mates would make you go out a lot more, which would get expensive. Personally having room mates was the best decision I made from a fun perspective, but it sounds like you value your privacy more.

 

They say they jog to work and pick up clothes on the way. Do they shower or something? Nothing like sweating and then putting on some fresh clothes. They are all proud about owning their place in 2 years and "only" paying 700 a month in rental fees, but have they thought about how the hell they will be able to see this place? I mean 700 bucks a month isn't a lot for NYC, but when a crappy, tiny studio is maybe 4-500 more a month you think it might be smarter to rent and bank all the money rather than sink 150K into a place that has limited resale appeal at best.

 

WTF are you talking about? Cheapest share 1100? Cheapest studio 1800? You can get a studio apartment in Manhattan for $1,200. Given it will be a no frills shoe box... but you can get that in a decent (somewhat close to work and not all the way uptown) area.

The main benefit of sharing is splitting utilities and the fact that you if you pay $1,200 for a studio... its relatively easy finding a 3 bedroom for less than 3600, or a 4 bedroom for less that 4800. Similarly, if you find a 4 bedroom for 4,800 or less... you can always try to hawk the master (typically larger and sometimes with its own bathroom) to a roommate willing to pay more for a bigger room and his/her own bathroom..... in which case maybe the master bed roommates paying 1400... and the other three are splitting 3400. You get the point.

In addition to that you can get a deal moving into a share because often times there will be 4 roommates, and one suddenly leaves... say there's 6 months left on the lease. If the rent is 4800 (1200 each), the roommates will end up paying 1200 collectively out of pocket if the room stays vacant for a month... so they're willing to rent it out at as low as $1,001 as long as they dont have to pay one month out of pocket.

I have a friend who took on a lease himself and rents out the 3 rooms in his 4 bedroom apartment, he ends up paying less than 800 a month since he can charge roommates as much as someone is willing to pay... tradeoff is... they're not on the lease... if they leave, and you don't get a tenant, you're picking up the tab.

 

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