Any advice on finding an apartment in Manhattan ?

Like anything else it will depend on what he can afford. The Upper East Side is where a lot of 20s-40s live. My nephew is there And he's paying 2k for a 2 bedroom. You might also consider Brooklyn and Queens. It's just a 15-20 min subway ride and there are some great areas for younger crowd. Williamsburg and Long Island City come to mind. All depends on what he wants to pay. Check the NY Times real estate sect online.

 

Are you looking to buy or rent ?

Doubt he will enjoy living in that area of midtown.

Village, Soho, Union Square......those are the places that are hot.

I have a fully gut renovated alcove studio that was converted into a beautiful 1BR for sale in the Village if interested.

 

I assume he's looking for a Rental:
1) Craigslist (usually roommate needed)
2) Citi Habitat (one of the better Broker for rentals)

 

TOOO ****INNNN EXPENSIVE FOR A YOUNG LAD

LET HIM LIVE IN BROOKLYN, HALF THE PRICE AND A 30 MIN COMMUTE BY TRAIN

LIVED AND WORKED IN THE CITY FOR 25 YRS......A HOLE IN THE WALL IS 1500 A MONTH

TAKE MY ADVISE

BRUCE

 

That sounds not correct for a 2BR on the upper east side. If you are lucky you can find a (shared) 1BR for that price, usually you just get a studio for 2K.

 

Totally disagree...Upper east side is mainly families...It is not the place a young single guy wants to live and you are not even getting a 1BR for 2k.

Agreed that for a decent apartment in a desirable area it will be significantly more than 2K

Rentals are so expensive in Manhattan at this time that many people have found it wiser and more cost effective to purchase rather than rent.

 

2 BR in manhattan for $2k, I'll take 5 of them. I've seen some very small 2 BRs in the village that were more than that and they were literally < 400 sf. each BR litterally fit a single bed and the door didn't open all the way. You get what you pay for in manhattan unless you've been there forever and are rent controlled (at one point my next door neighbor was literally paying ~20% of what I was).

 

Maybe Murray Hill?

Anyway this site has resources on rents in various neighborhoods.

http://www.mns.com/resources

 

Upper east side is the place for him. He's near the 6 train which drops him right at work, it's a very young neighborhood with great bars on 1st 2nd and 3rd aves and cheaper rents the closer you get to York ave.

Look at management companies. Bettina is good, the newer buildings have there own rental offices. 2k would get you half a 2br

 

I'd avoid brokers and their fees. There is no need to use them in the city they are all a rip off and can be replaced with an app. Pretty much everything is posted on craigslist and easily searchable when it comes to apartments in the city. When negotiating for a place he likes I'd try and get them to come down a little since they won't have to pay 1 months rent as a fee to a broker. This was a successful tactic a few times in the city for me.

As for location really depends what he's looking for. Does he want to be close to work with no commute or close to partying? Upper east side is very quite and boring with not a lot of great places food/hangout wise. I'd go lower in the union square/downtown area. He'll have a 20-30 min train commute to work but those are much better/nicer/more fun areas to live, especially for a young single guy in the city. He won't find anything beyond a very small studio in a walk up most likely but personally I think thats better than having to live in an outer borough. In manhattan I'd avoid anything above central park.

Just keep in mind rents in the city along with overall costs for everything have sky rocketed this year. I left in october after getting a 7k/yr rent increase.

2k for 2br? Not a chance unless he's looking at apartments in a dumpy area of jersey city. I had a loft studio and it was 3500/month.

 

Like stated earlier if he does not mind to commute Williamsburg and LIC are becoming pretty nice places to live with cheaper rent than staying in the city he can save the extra rent money and use it to buy a whole bus load of metrocards

 

I know a thing or two about this stuff , i lived in the city for years , i would look at Brooklyn heights , near Montague street , its right near the prominade park , you can see the Statue of Liberty from there + they made alot of movies from there + still do . very hot spot for young people, good food , some clubs , a studio is probably around $2K now i bet , its only 15 or so minutes to get across the river into Manhattan . its a college crowd for sure. I think $ 2K for a 1 or 2 bedroom in Manhattan is impossible unless its a dump in the projects , maybe a studio for that but it would be the size of a Texas closet . another great place would be Carrol gardens Brooklyn, , its Downtown , very close to Manhattan , great Pizza places, young people + old , its a nice place to live .. Realty fees are through the roof , i would check CL , or papers like the NY times or the Village Voice for a decent deal .

 

Where he is going to work its accessible by train and bus, I believe the E train leaves you within walking distance. I know in queens ozone park area he can get a full apartment 2/3 bedroom for around 14/1500 and it's a decent area.
I live near the A train takes me about 30 to 45 min to get there

 

People tell me it's only an hour drive from Suffolk county!

 

No thats not true , i live in Nassau county , its a hour drive to one of the bridges the enter Manhattan, if you are lucky . very lucky ., you can make it to the midtown tunnel from suffolk county at midnight if you have a really fast car , then again theres that luck thing you need .

 

I do work for a building on 67th and Amsterdam, brand new 1and 2 bedrooms great location, but not a party area, if you any interest the adress is 200 west 67th.

 

Don't you know that no one who commutes to New York from the suburbs will ever say that it takes them more than an hour?

My commute from Connecticut was "less than an hour" but in reality it was only the scheduled time on MetroNorth and didn't include getting to the station and then from Grand Central to the office. Add it all up and it was about one hour 20 minutes each way.

The OPs son might look into the "yuppie ghetto" area of in the Yorkville area of Manhattan where there are a lot of tall apartment buildings in the low-mid 90's around 1st avenue. That area has always been an area where recent grads gravitate and I just heard of the son of a friend who rented an apartment there.

These days the hip areas are Chelsea, Union Square, Lower East Side, Tribeca but those areas also tend to be expensive, even the LES. You can save a lot of money across the river in Brooklyn and neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens and Park Slope all are nice places to live but tend to attract older professionals who are married and might have children.

Some younger professionals I know have gone to Jersey City and Hoboken but I don't think that the commute would be that great for midtown east area.

Everyone should live in the Big Apple at least once in their lives for a while and I hope that your son enjoys everything about it.

No idea where current rents by neighborhood are but I doubt that $2,000/month will get you even a studio in a decent area and certainly not a 2BR.

 

I'd suggest for a young guy working long hours, it's worth the compromise in space/cost to get a place in Manhattan and not have to deal with being in one of the burroughs. The last thing you want to deal with when walking out of the office at midnight is a cab or train to one of the burroughs.

There are plenty of kids right out of college on the upper east side, particularly east of 3rd ave and north of 70th street and there's definitely a vibrant bar / restaurnant scene that caters to that group up there.

Someone else mentioned Murray Hill as well and I'd suggest looking there too. Those were the two neighborhoods that over half my friends lived when we moved to the city after college.

SoHo/Tribeca/west village etc, would be great, but unless he finds a great deal or is getting a lot of help making the rent, it's going to be tough to afford a place there.

In terms of how to go about the search, the internet is a good tool to start with. I've used brokers to find my places in the past and found them to be helpful and worth the expense. Feel free to pm me if you want any recommendations on that front.

I would also echo the thought that $2k/month is pretty unrealistic for a 2 bedroom apartment, unless the $2k refers to his share of the rent. When I first moved here I spent a week looking at places before my mind calibrated to costs here and I was able to recognize when something was over, under or market priced. It's crazy expensive, but being a young professional living & working in new york is a unique experience and one you can't buy later.

I'm still here 14 years on, so clearly biased, but my 2c.

 

I'm with Tosh on living in Manhattan. Most of the young people working for us are sharing an apartment. Two people to a one bedroom or three to a two bedroom takes some planning for privacy, but being in the city is priceless.....

Many young people are moving a lot in the first few months to work out a living arrangement that they can cope with. There are a lot of sub-leases for short term available. Sometimes you get screwed, but you quickly become street-wise.

Do not even try to solve the housing situation in advance. Just have something like a B&B place for a week to start out and take it from there.

 

I do agree that if you find something in Manhattan that would be great , How cool is that to come to NY to study . makes me feel old . !