<p>Considering the long hours he’d be working in the financial district and short commute times, he may also want to look into areas like Brooklyn Heights and nearby areas of Brooklyn where commutes to/from the fiancial district are limited to a few subway stops or sometimes even a short walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. </p>
<p>One downside, however, is the rents in the Brooklyn areas may rival or even exceed those of areas oldfort has mentioned considering the popularity among professionals in the legal and banking industries. He may also not have much time to enjoy the neighborhood amenities/life of those neighborhoods if he works long hours. </p>
<p>If you’re willing to relocate up to the upper east side and aren’t adverse to walking a few more blocks to the Lexington Ave line, there’s some lower priced rentals if you’re in the extreme eastern Yorkville section as I’ve known several students on a budget find extremely reasonable rentals in that area. However, you may find the commute to be longer than desired and the area to be a bit isolated if you’re looking for more neighborhood life. </p>
<p>Upper West Side may be convenient in commute, but you may find the area’s rentals have been driven up by heavy combined demand from working professional families/individuals and undergrads…especially Columbia/Barnard students. As with the Upper East Side, you may also find the commute to be longer than desired. </p>
<p>As for the car, he’s better off without it. Unless he plans on making frequent trips out of the city, having a car is usually much more of a hassle than a help with insurance, parking fees, finding parking, getting ticketed/stopped by cops, etc. He’s also not likely to have much time to make those out of city trips considering his job.</p>
<p>Just a fast comment… to tell which neighborhoods are dicier than others, you need to talk to acquaintances in NYC, not just brokers and other real estate professionals. There are ethics laws that forbid real estate brokers from discussing how safe/clean/etc. neighborhoods are(!) If a broker says something bad about a neighborhood online (say are pushing Inwood over Harlem), other brokers jump on them and bring up the ethics rules right away.
That said, the Upper West Side rents for studios are not THAT atrocious. If you trust Craigslist, you can at least get a rough guide to what rents are doing (though a bunch of those might be ‘illegal’ sublets…)</p>
<p>My son worked down at the World Trade Center and lived in the Gramercy area – East 18th Street. He was in a 4th floor walkup in a really nice townhouse with two roommates. There are lots of shares available – and they move fast. Housing is a bit tight at the moment due to Sandy and many buildings still not repaired. My son was paying, I think, $1800 for the master with private bath. The two other guys were paying $1600 and sharing the second bath.</p>
<p>My poor child relocated to the LA area and is living in a share in Hermosa Beach two blocks from the ocean with a 3 mile commute to work, paying $1250.</p>
<p>Most of the neighborhoods in Brooklyn with a big influx of young people are just a few subway stops from lower Manhattan; in fact, often they are closer than many parts of Manhattan. And all of lower Manhattan has great subway service.</p>
<p>Use padmapper to find potential apartments. Almost all apartments will be available immediately or within a week or two. Make sure your paperwork is in order. He will be required to show 40X rent in salary - no exceptions. This means a 3K apartment requires a note or paystub proving salary of 120K, not including signing bonus.
If he works downtown, look in downtown, west village, flatiron, soho, tribeca, GV. East Village can be far from subway if you are on an alphabet street. Also look in brooklyn in brooklyn heights or williamsburg. Commute from Upper West or Upper East side will be about 45 minutes, not the best for working downtown.
Rental prices are mostly market driven so you generally pay the market price, you won’t get ripped off but its also hard to get a deal. If an apartment is cheap, there is generally a reason - neighborhood, building amenities, near subway, etc.
From what I see, many/most people under 26 share. After that they start to get their own.
Subletting for a month or three is really common.</p>
<p>Parents will need proof of 80x rent. So parent will will need to prove 240K salary for a 3K rental. You will need to pay broker fee - negotiable but around 10% of first years rent, and first month’s rent, and one month security deposit upon moving in. So figure a check for 10K to move in.
This rule is not so hard and fast in less desirable neighborhoods in Brooklyn or queens and does not apply if you are subletting or if you are going in on a share that has already been through this.</p>
<p>Don’t go to NJ. Your son doesn’t want to be dependent on a train or bus schedule, especially when he’s going to be working long hours in Finance. And when everyone else is going out for a drink after work, he doesn’t want to have to keep checking his watch! As far as the outer boroughs are concerned, weekends are tough. Some train lines don’t run, or run on limited schedules, or have construction projects that shut them down. My D lived in Prospect Heights, and she had no problem getting to work, but major problems if she wanted to do something in Manhattan on weekends. That being said, some neighborhoods are “hot”, and rents are insane. My grandmother’s tenement apartment on the Lower East Side is probably a million dollar condo now. My D lives in an Upper East Side studio, way over east, and she was lucky to get it for $1700. You have to be realistic and not commit all of his cash to rent. NYC is the home of the $7 box of Cheerios. And what’s the fun of being there if you have to watch your pennies? There are no-fee rental websites. Google and you will find them. Broker fees are 15% of the ANNUAL rent. Good luck to him. I envy him!</p>
<p>1) most rental brokers will negotiate down to one month of commission; but be careful; many of them do not have the best scruples…</p>
<p>2) stay away from condo/co-OP rentals if time is of the essence; you don’t want to have to pass a board approval/HUGE fees on condos…</p>
<p>3) this is not a plug; for the E 20-30’s, Algin Management is the biggest direct management agency; you do not need a broker (nor is it preferred)</p>
<p>Not relevant for Hoboken and Jersey City: the PATH is basically like the subway, buses run constantly. I used to live in Hoboken and work in Manhattan. The commute to Wall Street and midtown is easy. Both are full of young professionals, and Hoboken at least has lots of good street life (restaurants, bars, specialty food shops). Brooklyn Heights is really nice also, but more expensive.</p>
<p>And BTW, if he lived in Hoboken, he COULD keep his car if he wanted to and park it on the street. Although of course it would be insane to commute that way, it would give him flexibility on weekends. A car is not needed if you live in Hoboken and work in the city, but it is feasible to have one, unlike Manhattan, where the cost f garaging it is huge.</p>
<p>Brooklyn Heights is not a neighborhood with a lot of young people. Williamsburg, Bushwick, downtown Brooklyn, Ft. Greene, Clinton Hill, Bed-Stuy. The subway situation on weekends is (generally) better than it has been in a while. Lots of buildings that were intended as condos are rented out by their developers, especially in downtown Brooklyn which has great transit–if one line isn’t running on the weekend, it’s very close to walk to another line.</p>
<p>Consolation: What happens in a situation where the PATH is out for weeks, like Hurricane Sandy? You need alternatives, too. And if you don’t live walking distance to the PATH, where do you park? Years ago, those high rise garages by the Clam Broth House were a few dollars for the day; I shudder to think what they cost now. My D’s boss lives in Hoboken and takes the bus to Port Authority. Not a great commute for downtown.
The ferry from Jersey City must be great, but costly. Also, the same problem, getting to the dock on the Jersey side. Oh, and back! Not that I’m lazy, but time is money too. Like living way out in NJ becaise the homes are cheaper, but paying it out in gas or train /bus fare instead. All these things need to be considered, and accepted or rejected from an informed perspective.</p>
<p>I have a friend in his late 20s who found a rental for less than $2k in Clinton Hill. About 20 mins on the subway to lower Manhattan. He used Streeteasy to identify possible places:
[StreetEasy:</a> NYC Rentals, Manhattan Apartments & Rentals In New York City, Brooklyn, Queens And The Bronx](<a href=“http://streeteasy.com/nyc/rentals]StreetEasy:”>http://streeteasy.com/nyc/rentals)</p>
<p>You can search by neighborhood, number of bedrooms, etc.</p>
<p>fafnir, everyone I know in Hoboken parks on the street. Hoboken is only a mile long, so there is a limit to how far you have to walk, even in the worst of circumstances. In addition, there is a bus that runs down Washington Street, and cabs waiting at the PATH station. (Most people LIKE having a walk in the day. I certainly did.) The bus to the Port Authority is obviously not the best route to downtown, the PATH is, but it IS available as an alternative in the unlikely event that the PATH is not running. I don’t know anything about the practicality of taking the ferry: it wasn’t running when I lived there.</p>
<p>The cost of commuting from Hoboken pales in comparison to the cost of living within walking distance of Wall Street. I think that I am presenting an “informed perspective,” since I have actually lived in Hoboken and commuted from there to both Wall Street and midtown. If the OP’s son can afford to blow big $$ on a Manhattan apartment, and wants to, that’s his choice. (But since you want to talk about trade-offs, consider the cost of food in Manhattan vs the cost in Hoboken. People who live in lower Manhattan actually take the PATH to NJ to grocery shop. )</p>
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