After a year in my current place, and putting up with a lot of s#!+, I've thrown in the towel. Meaning...deep breath... I have to start looking for an apartment again.

UGH.

If anyone else is looking to move and/or knows a friend looking for a roommate, please let me know. I should be able to move end of Dec/early Jan. THANKS

B-Man good luck to you. What does an average 1 bedroom go for there?? I hate to ask, but just curious.

I don't know about average....but I pay $1100 a month for my 1 BD on the North shore of Staten Island. When I first moved here in 2000, I found a 300 sq. ft. studio in Chelsea for $1400.
And I had someone offer me their couch for $1200 a month. It is very expensive here in NYC. But you should be able to find something under $1000 pretty easily, it just depends on how much space you require and where you want to be.

I was paying close to $1300 for a loft-like share in Williamsburg, nice area, I hope to be able to get a space back here, actually. Or DUMBO. I'm actually moving my stuff out TODAY; I have a space I can stay at for free in NJ, and will use that time to say $$$ for a deposit.

There are some great spaces out there, one just needs to have a friend who is also looking for something at the same time...

I may know someone looking for a roommate in Jersey City. Don't know if you'd be willing to live in JC, but it's kind of like Brooklyn in terms of travel time to Manhattan. And there are still some deals to be found, though rents have gone up in the last couple of years. I expect to see this guy on Tuesday so let me know if I should bother asking.

$1400 for 300 sq ft?

Wow!

That's typical in a prime Manhattan neighborhood... and actually, that 300 sq foot figure is probably a bit generous. I've seen studios at around 200 sq feet (I measured). Below 110th Street in Manhattan it is almost impossible to find an apartment below $1300, and that's for a basic, small studio in a walk-up building. That same apartment in an old, no frills, doorman building bumps the cost up to about $1600 or $1700 minimum. I've seen studio apartments as high as $3000... yes, for a studio. Granted, it's major luxury, but still, IT'S A FREAKIN' ONE ROOM STUDIO. In the brand new luxury doorman buildings in Chelsea, studios range from $2200 to $2800, one bedrooms from $2700 to $4000 or so, and two bedrooms range from $3800 to $6000.

Most expensive apartment I ever saw was $12,000 a month... and it was nice, but for that price you might expect the Taj Mahal. Nope. It had air conditioners in the windows just like the po' folks (central air is not something NYC discovered in apartment buildings until the 80's or 90's, and even today you see new buildings (non luxury) going up with spaces in the wall for the tenant to provide their own A/C unit).

I did real estate for a time, and the most expensive apartment I rented to someone was $7000 a month. Now, it was a beautifully renovated apartment, with nice details and a really nice kitchen, two bedrooms plus a den. Three floors. Located in the West Village, and it had a small deck (6x10) out the back (no view, 7 foot high fence to block to view of the other buildings). But it did face out on to a noisy avenue, and it started on the third floor of a walkup... no elevator for $7000 a month. But that was market rate for that size/quality/location.

I believe in prime Manhattan, the average one bedroom price is currently in the $2200-$2400 range. The cheapest can be had on the UES for around $1500 (and that gets you basically a studio sized unit with a bedroom only large enough for a twin sized bed and maybe a dresser. Some landlords take studio apartments, put up a wall, and market it as a one bedroom, as it draws more reponse. I've seen bedrooms in these cheap one bedrooms as small as 5' x 7' (I'm not kidding).

I know there are a few needle in a haystack deals out there, but they are few and far between. And everyone has heard of someone who has a cheap rent stabilized unit... problem is, they never move because they can't come close to matching what they have without paying a lot more in rent. And once they do move, most landlords will take advantage of the rules that let them jack the rent up closer to market value, especially if they do some renovations. So while still a deal compared to the market, they are not the steals that the last tenant had.

Now, this is prime Manhattan... prices are much more reasonable (by NYC standards) in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx, Jersey... though still, about the cheapest studio apartment you will find is $550-$600, and again that's for a small, no frills walkup. You can find them in parts of Jersey and the Bronx. For Brooklyn and Queens, it's hard to find something below $700-$800. And that depends on the neighborhood, as prices swing wildly for the same space/condition depending on what part of Brooklyn or Queens you are in.

No one moves to NYC for space or cheap rent...

[ November 15, 2004, 06:28 PM: Message edited by: Penn State ]

I have several friends who live in Manhattan, and I think you might even be on the low side depending on where in the island you are. I do know of a 2 br penthouse in my friends (Both of them are wall street lawyers)building that they were asking $8,500 a month(No this was NOT one of the Trump buildings). My friends used to joke about it being the Ritz - as in 'someday when we sell the kids we're going to go live at the Ritz'; but it really wasn't that big - I think it was only around 1500- 1800 sq. or about twice the size of my friends apt. They finally moved to a nice brownstone on the upper east side overlooking a park - more room for the kids..

Rob

[ November 15, 2004, 06:42 PM: Message edited by: ITJock ]