how much does it cost to live in new york city?

[puffff]

Originally posted by: Flatscan
Older thread, might be useful:
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=38&threadid=1771919&enterthread=y

Originally posted by: puffff
a 1bdrm or studio. i'd like to live by myself, i've always had roommates before, want to try the solo thing.

i've looked on craigslist, but there's a huge range. you can get something for $1000 a month, or $2500. thats why i was wondering if any ATOTers were in the big apple, so they could give me a percentage of take home income they spend.

With the cost of renting in NYC, it might be a good idea to deal with roommates for a while to build up savings for when you rent alone. Paying NYC's above average rents and moving into a single is a sizeable double-whammy.

I'm not sure why you're interested in percentage of take-home people spend, instead of a straight number for monthly rent + utilities. I believe the general guideline is 1/3, but I can see the rationale of going up to 1/2 in NYC. If you are grossing 60K or less, I strongly suggest that you consider roommates and/or living outside of Manhattan.

Location, size, and quality all affect the pricing of a rental. The low numbers you see on craigslist or other boards tend to be very small and/or in inconvenient or "unsavory" locations. I heard about this place that was a good size, with a $200-300 discount to market, but it was near Port Authority (42nd and 8th Ave) and above an adult bookstore.

Here are descriptions of places that people I know live, with my best guess for what they pay (these are all studios, not 1BR):
UWS, near W90th and Broadway: small, nearly unliveable; building is pretty bad, doorman; < 1000
UES, below E90th and 1st Ave: okay size; no idea of building, no doorman; < 1200
Forest Hills, Queens: large (nearly equivalent to a small 1BR); good building, doorman; 1400
Battery Park: smallish; excellent building, doorman; 1900

thanks Flatscan, your post was very informative.

i figure percentage of income would be more telling. if i know people are spending 1/2, then i can reason spending that much too. if my neighbors are spending 1/3, and i'm spending 1/2, that might be telling me there are other costs i may have overlooked and would ahve problems making ends meet.

i'll be grossing 60k before bonuses, i think i could afford something around 1200-1500/month. size isnt a big deal to me, a small studio would be fine, but i'd like it to be clean and in a block that doesnt have rat problems or anything. UES and UWS are places i'm looking at mostly since it seems like they'd be most convenient for work.

oh, and i've done the whole living with roommates thing before, this will be my third job out of school.. i'd really like to have my own pad, if i can afford it.

 

[oboeguy]

Big 2BR -- technically a 3BR depending on how you think of it -- in Washington Heights (the good part, "north of 180th, west of Broadway"), ~$1600. But then we got in before things went totally nuts. A friend of ours did even better moving into the area (3 blocks north of us) a couple of years before.

"Percent of income" is a completely idiotic, worthless statistic. W(ho)TF cares what percent it is?

 

[puffff]

Originally posted by: oboeguy
Big 2BR -- technically a 3BR depending on how you think of it -- in Washington Heights (the good part, "north of 180th, west of Broadway"), ~$1600. But then we got in before things went totally nuts. A friend of ours did even better moving into the area (3 blocks north of us) a couple of years before.

"Percent of income" is a completely idiotic, worthless statistic. W(ho)TF cares what percent it is?

If person A tells me they're living comfortably in a 2000/month place, another says they can barely make it in a 1000/month studio, what do I get out of it? Will my situation be like person A or person B? Now if both of them come out and say yeah, they're spending about half their income on housing, I at least have a notion of what I'll be able to afford. And no one even had to say how much they make, which people might not want to do on a public forum.

 

[Dessert Tears]

If you're likely to see large bonuses (e.g. in finance), you can aggressively plan your regular expenses (e.g. nicer place) and use your bonus for entertainment, one-time purchases, and savings. Your estimated range is reasonable, and you have the option of pushing it a little.

I haven't used a broker myself, but most of my friends did. The good ones screen their availabilities to your specifications and are said to have early access to hot rentals.

 

[FoBoT]

Originally posted by: LoKe
Eleventy Billion dollars.

plus tax and tip

its really expensive

 

[LeadMagnet]

if you have to ask you cannot afford it.