Rent Gone Wild
One of vintage New York nightmares is called “looking for an apartment”. Granted, that’s never a pleasant task, no matter where you live, but NY can be especially brutal in this respect. First of all, available places disappear by the minute. As soon as you find an ad on a site, you better grab your phone and call the owner, since there are thousands of people here equally in need for a place to stay.
Second of all: the prices. Before you grab the phone, better look at them since they are guaranteed to knock you off your feet. I often hear people asking how much New York apartments are. Since I’m up to date on that issue (I had the dubious pleasure of looking for an apartment here recently), I will share my newly acquired knowledge with you.
The cheapest places, like studios or one bedroom apartments are $900/month at the very least if you keep in mind that a deal like that is very rare and usually means a bad location and low apartment standard. One bedroom places start at $1200/month, with the average being $1500 and more (I mean a cheap district, of course – there’s no way you’re getting a place in Manhattan for that kind of money).
$900 usually means a room in a good location – you may even find a place in Manhattan for that price, even though it’s much more likely that a room in Manhattan will cost you more than $1000 nowadays. Two room apartments start at $1700, but you have to keep in mind that at this price they will either be in shabby condition or located in an unattractive place. A decent two-bedroom place hovers in the $2200-plus price range. That’s the price for Brooklyn and Queens, and not in the very best neighborhoods. Williamsburg, which is Brooklyn’s most hip neighborhood, is usually $2000 for one bedroom and $3000 for a two-bedroom place. Did you ever make fun of the upward mobile Greenpooint…? Laugh no more: double room places start at $2600 there nowadays.
Better Brooklyn locations have one bedroom places starting at $1600, two bedroom at $2600, with their Manhattan equivalents at $2000 and $3000 respectively. The prices go only up, like New York skyscrapers – not even the sky marking their crazy limit.
*None of the prices discussed in this post include gas, electricity and internet
