<p>"New York can be an intimidating place for young people fresh out of college. Some find they need to bed down for a few years in something more challenging than a dorm, though not much more. ....
Windsor Court, which occupies an entire square block between Third and Lexington Avenues at 31st Street, has two towers with 710 apartments. Its lobby is rich with brass, mirrors, marble and brown leather. Colleges like Syracuse, Emory and Michigan seem overrepresented among the tenants, many of whom have their rents subsidized by parents left behind in the suburbs of Westchester County, Long Island and New Jersey. "</p>
<p>I couldn’t get beyond the horror of paying $3,200 for a one-bedroom apartment. </p>
<p>New York is just so appallingly expensive.</p>
<p>The fact that many of the young residents have parents nearby probably has to do with a two-part phenomenon specific to New York City: 1) because rents are so high, most young people in their first jobs cannot qualify to lease apartments on their own and need to ask their parents to act as guarantors, and 2) many landlords will only accept guarantors who live in the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut). We discovered this when my daughter was considering a job in NYC (which she did not take for other reasons). I was very glad that she chose a job in a different city because my husband and I do not live in the tri-state area, which means that her choice of places to live in NYC would have been drastically limited.</p>
<p>Students who don’t have local parents usually can’t live in places like this because they don’t have local guarantors. Therefore, they probably are living in less desirable locations in the outer boroughs or suburbs, where the landlords are less fussy (but the rents are still high).</p>
<p>In other cities, young tenants may still need guarantors, but the rules are not as strict, and guarantors from distant places probably qualify.</p>
<p>Never mind the guarantors, I don’t know how they’re affording those rents. I can’t help but think the parents must be subsidizing, in between dropping off the winter clothes in the driveway.</p>
<p>When my D lived in NYC, she shared a three bedroom apartment which went for about 2400/month. So her share was half the 1600 that the kid in the story paid for half a one bedroom. Of course, she lived in Brooklyn, where everyone else she knew lived, too. I don’t know any kids who could afford Manhattan post-college, but I also don’t know any whose parents were going to subsidize their housing. (Maybe the ones I know just don’t make enough?)</p>
<p>My landlord is also trying to appeal to the same post-collegiate crowd. Who else would want a one-bedroom for $3,200 a month? A married or engaged or same-sex couple could buy something for that amount of money. </p>
<p>Rents are obscene here. That’s why my daughter plans on coming home after college and moving right back into her old bedroom. Welcome home, honey!</p>
<p>I have a 22 year old D who is 1.5 years out of college. She went to college in NYC. She supports herself. She lives in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn (two stops out of Manhattan on the L) and pays $725 in rent for her share of her apartment. We do not subsidize her. She lives in a totally different type of building than in the article. Hers is a three story brownstone type building. The laundromat is across the street.</p>
<p>My son lives in Washington Hts in Manhattan and pays $600 for his share of the rent in a 2 BR made into a 3 BR apartment. He would have loved to have been in a situation like the one in the article, but he wanted his own room and he can’t afford those prices. We are not subsidizing him beyond laundry, a few bucks here and there, dinner. We’ve been seeing him about once or twice a month. He does live hand to mouth, and it is tough for me to watch this. I wish we could be subsidizing him.</p>
<p>Williamsburg is a great area for young people. I actually went there for the first time this Saturday, for a concert at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. Everyone makes fun of Williamburg for being hipsterville, but I was very impressed by the nice shops, restaurants, and active street life. The neighborhood has really developed in the past 10 years. But it’s getting expensive too, and kids are having to go farther and farther into Brooklyn on the L train line to find affordability. After a point the safety isn’t so good.</p>
<p>Washington Heights is the last bastion of affordability in Manhattan. But due to its location at the very north end of the island, lots of young people are choosing to live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and nearby areas like Greenpoint, which are a quicker train ride.</p>
<p>just read the article in hard copy; just to let you know, the series it is part of is called “about New York” so the answer is, “yes, this is a NY phenomenon”</p>
<p>However, parents helping their kids to pay rent/mortgage/grandchild’s camp/grandchild’s college education/ etc (you get the drift), seems to be more common than one would expect around the country…it truly shocks me, but yea…</p>
<p>Even at my age, I am consistently taken aback when I hear how much financial support some of my contemporaries have gotten as adults…</p>