<p>Calmom - I am sure your D’s apt is fine, as she says she likes it, and you vouch for her good sense.</p>
<p>However to get serious (as opposed to my earlier post with the smilie), from all I can gather (and I still follow it both because as a former NYer I am interested in NYC real estate, and because there is some percentage my DD will end up in NYC) most “cheap” apts in Manhattan are not merely smaller than you might expect given the number of BR’s, but they are often in buildings charecterized by certain “issues” not to mention in neighborhoods with certain “issues” (though of course there aren’t so many such nabes in Manhattan anymore). When I was 20 or so my cousin lived with some roommates, said it was Ok, then one fine day she called my dad (my parents still lived in Brooklyn, I was at college in New England- her folks were in Los Angeles) saying she needed to leave and could he come and help move her. My dad later shook his head at how disgusting the place and the building were. She later found a nicer, rent stabilized place - albeit on what was then a very marginal block. IIRC she crashed with my parents till she found the new place.</p>
<p>My standards for comfy are, I suspect, not as high as most parents on CC. I grew up in a family of four in a 3BR 1 bath apt in brooklyn, without central air. But it was a clean middle class building, it was new enough that all apt were relatively light and airy, and it was a safe neighborhood. Today I live in a 3BR standard issue end of group Northern Virginia Townhome. I do not judge based on mcmansion standards. But my strong impression is that the tendency of new grads with modest incomes to seek out roommate situations in Brooklyn and Queens rather than Manhattan is for a reason.</p>
<p>Your DD may have been very lucky in what she was able to find - but I would not suggest to most 40k graduates to expect to find a good RE situation in Manhattan.</p>