<p>Wondering if any wise CCers have any suggestions or outside the box ideas to be passed on to 2 Columbia grad students desperate for housing this fall (preferably with Aug. start time, but might consider Sept 1). There are brokers involved, but they are in leave no stone unturned mode now. Preferred price range is $3000 a month or less. They are two responsible women, who would like 2 BRs (or a reasonable way to create a second BR) in a “safe” area with a half hour or less commute to school. Thanks for any advice. Things are going right out from under them.</p>
<p>This might be obvious advice, but a friend who is going to grad school at Columbia just found a sublet on craigslist that was relatively reasonable.</p>
<p>My guess is they need access to mass transit, so they need to be semi-close to Columbia…have they considered just across the river in NJ? Or north of NY -Columbia Presbyterian Hospital and take the train down</p>
<p>Thanks. That’s good to hear. They are keeping their eye on craigslist. Was the sublet for a full year?</p>
<p>Thanks Phillyfed. Mass transit it is. They haven’t thought about NJ. Would have to look at how far north CPH is and how the commute looks.</p>
<p>The commute from CPH area is very easy, did it for years…the immediate area of CPH is not that good, but just north is fine</p>
<p>Another comment (hope some more recent NYC residents chime in…), NYC brokers cannot tell you which areas are safe - this is an ethics violation/law violation. So you need to ask around. I would roughly say Harlem < Hamilton Hts < Morningside < Upper West Side. On the other hand, since 2 out of 3 ex-wives of Tom Cruise are going to live in Chelsea, maybe that’s the happening place! :)</p>
<p>Phillyfed, how far north of 168th is fine? I appreciate the responses.</p>
<p>169 to 181, west of Broadway, preferably in west of Ft. Washington Ave, is just fine. Further uptown to Ft. Tryon Park is very nice. The A train or 1 train are convenient.</p>
<p>Do you mean 3000/mo for both combined or 6000/mo total?</p>
<p>Are they grad students at the medical school, or on Columbia campus in Morningside? If Monrningside, the general rule is north is cheaper (but a bit less safe) while south is pricier but a bit more safe. That’s why I’m partial to Upper West Side for CC students.</p>
<p>Streeteasy dot com has all NY listings, have them check it out.</p>
<p>Within Manhattan, a large one bedroom which could be converted to a two bedroom with illegal walls would cost 3500+, a full 2 bedroom would be 5000+.</p>
<p>Chelsea, Union Square, Gramercy Park are very expensive or very run down and small. Murray Hill, Turtle Bay and Kips Bay are less expensive (mid town East), but wouldn’t be very convenient to Columbia.</p>
<p>S shared a 3-BR renovated apartment in Harlem with two single women for a year. They lived on busy 125th St. a little bit east of Amsterdam Ave. That’s around a 6 block walk to where Columbia U buildings begin. The women felt safe walking to and from school, across 125th in the daytime. In the early evening, that street was full of people and therefore very safe. If they wanted to very, very late at night, they could afford to buy cabrides home because their housing costs were that reasonable. They didn’t cab, but they could have.</p>
<p>I think they are being a bit unrealistic in setting a 30 minute limit to commuting. Most folks living in NYC spend more time than that.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the helpful replies and reality checks. I think their options would be increased by the $6000 a month total, but alas, it is $3000. Sorry for the ambiguity. I’ll pass along the neighborhood info and real estate sites, they welcome any further input.</p>
<p>Check out Riverdale in the Bronx. A beautiful, green residential area 7 miles North from Columbia. Much safer then Harlem or Washington Heights, and also more affordable.</p>
<p>Riverdale is very nice, it’s gentrified considerably since I used to live there (and even back then wasn’t too bad). Rent, AFAIK, is still reasonable.</p>
<p>Also, you can definitely get a nice 1BR convertible for 3k a month in a lot of (fairly safe) areas. Walls aren’t necessarily illegal either.</p>
<p>Columbia owns so much real estate in the vicinity of the school. I am surprised that they cannot find anything through Columbia housing.</p>
<p>They are making two critical mistakes. First, they are being unreasonable in what they are looking for. I believe apartments like the one they want exist – my daughter has one – but not necessarily in “nice” areas in Manhattan, and often with more than a 30 minute simple commute to Columbia. In NYC these days, 20-something grad students live in all sorts of places that would have seemed improbable only a few years ago – Harlem, Bushwick, Washington Heights, even Bedford-Stuyvesant. I don’t think a $3,000/mo. budget relegates you to Bed-Stuy, but it won’t get you a place on the Broadway subway lines south of Columbia. They ought to be looking where their peers are living. Try Astoria, Greenpoint, other Williamsburg suburbs in Brooklyn, Fordham area, Harlem.</p>
<p>Second, the New York apartment market is not one where you can contemplate things at leisure. People make quick decisions, and not so far in advance. If they see something they like, they have to be willing to say yes then and there.</p>
<p>By the way, I don’t think they are running behind yet at all, really. My sense is that the young-people NYC apartment market turns over with a 2-4 week horizon. Maybe 6, but never more than that. August 1 deals are still happening now, September 1 inventory may not have hit the market yet. My daughter had to replace a roommate for August 1. She showed her apartment to the first applicant last Monday, and signed a deal on Thursday.</p>
<p>Queens has great deals as has been mentioned…Astoria, Flushing, Elmhurst. Ethnic populations, interesting places to eat, pretty safe. </p>
<p>Williamsburg, Greenpoint, etc in Brooklyn is very hip and expensive of late. You can try. </p>
<p>Washington Heights good possibility too - safety is a “street by street” issue. </p>
<p>For Manhattan itself - nothing is that far from anything else via train. You can try Stuyvesant Town for a convertible one bedroom (converts nicely into two with a legal wall). It’s downtown, but nice and very safe. Check their website. Lower east side still has some very good deals too.</p>
<p>My kids got some good deals on craig’s list for short term sublets - but be careful; a lot of these are illegal sublets (not with landlords permission). Also, make sure they go together to see anything and tell someone where they are going- you don’t want any problems. </p>
<p>And the above poster is correct - when you see something you like, you do not have time to think it over. You have to sign up almost right then and there, or it will be gone.</p>
<p>Having lived in Queens and commuted to Columbia as an undergrad, I know that trip is a nightmare.
When I moved to Washington Heights @183rd, my commute was a dream! And this was in the dark days of the early 1980s.
But san-de is right - just about anywhere in Manhattan is OK for the commute to Morningside Heights.
But as someone else said, Columbia now owns practically all of upper Manhattan - housing office couldn’t help?? Wow!</p>