<p>Figured I may as well ask here -- any advice as to looking for an apartment in the city for a recent Penn grad? I'd need access to the 1/2/3 lines and would ideally like to pay 1.4k-1.5k/month for something nice and livable. I'd really appreciate any words of wisdom (I know little when it comes to apartment hunting) -- thanks.</p>
<p>Very nearly everyone here is living in some kind of university housing. So, we may not be much help. The only universal advice on apartment hunting seems to be this: don’t believe anything you see/read on any major city’s craigslist.</p>
<p>hey there, i am not sure if this is the best place to find something.</p>
<p>but some advice on finding an apt in nyc. craigslist only shows you so much, and most of the folks with good places are brokers anyhow. the further north you go the higher chance you will have of finding no-fee apts.</p>
<p>1) shop brokers. find folks that will show you things. don’t commit to anyone until you trust them, you like what you see. brokers are the sleaziest folks on earth, in my opinion.
2) if you wanna stay on the 1,2,3 you have a choice of anywhere from downtown brooklyn to as far north as inwood. neighborhoods are diverse, but some of the oldest of the city. and yes i agree staying within 1-2 blocks of the 1,2,3 makes life worth it.
3) for 1.4-1.5 you are probably in a 1 bedroom range for FiDi (quiet at night, boring during the day, but has some folks who like it), prolly chelsea, garment district, midtown west, and parts of the upper west side. definitely northward you’ll find it.<br>
4) well regardless where you are at 1.5 probably means you are talking about an older building, maybe one that is refurb’d. there are some high rise buildings in midtown west with smaller 1beds or studios that the broker might show you.
5) prices have gone down, but not really all that much.
6) there are some kind of young/college grad places to live between 8-10th ave in midtown west, i knew a few folks who moved there.
7) look for deals out there where they will forego first months rent or something, those were going on last year, not sure how the market is now.</p>
<p>i think regardless of what you want, the first thing is to dial down expectations. your first apt in nyc will never be great. and if you want it to be, you’d have to push your budget up. personally i think the uws especially in the low 70s is where a lot of former columbians have put up shop. not cheap, but pretty solid.</p>
<p>small addition: most places in manhattan require your yearly salary to be x times the monthly rent. Three or four of my friends have a 40x requirement, one or two have a 30x. probably not a big deal since you are looking for the 1.5k/month range but worth mentioning.</p>
<p>the traditional is 40x if you are using your own salary.
but if you have guarantors (as many as you need) they need to be 80x the monthly rent.</p>
<p>I’m going to be in NYC next year, and have been looking at apts as well at a similar price range, here’s the best first place to look:</p>
<p>[Manhattan</a> Rental Market Report | The Real Estate Group New York | TREGNY](<a href=“Tregny.com”>Tregny.com) </p>
<p>For 1.4-1.5k you can get a nice studio in a bad area or a decent studio in a mediocre building in a nice area like west village or upperwest side. One of the best things to do is to get a as 1-3 friends and live in n-1 bedrooms and convert the sitting area into a bedroom if that is feasible. if you have 4 other friends, you might be able to find a 5 bedroom for ~6000-8000/ month. It makes sense to live within a 7 minute walk so 7 street blocks or 2-3 avenue blocks from an express stop (2 or 3). A one bedroom in a nice (not absolutely high end) building near times square would be something like ~3000, so you could convert the living room into a bedroom and pay 1500 each. If you are willing to live in a walk up (as opposed to a high rise with a door man), then you can probably find a good studio for ~1200-1500 in the west village, which is one of the hippest and most fun areas to live in.</p>