I am in the process of interviewing for a sales rep job that I really want, but the only concern I have is the apartment situation near the metro nyc area.
The hiring manager alluded to not wanting to hire someone who wants to live too far away from the territory (manhattan), and suggested I look at Hoboken New Jersey (that’s where hew lives).
The opportunity is great for a recent college grad like me but it’s not amazing (so I am trying to keep rent at or under 1000).
I just am getting nervous when I search for apartments. They seem nice until I go to apartmentratings.com and find out they are loaded with roaches
Any advice or specific places to look would be great. I was told queens/brooklyn might be a good spot to look also…
For Queens, studio apartments can be had for under $1000 in neighborhoods such as Flushing, Bayside, Corona, Jackson Heights, and so on. All of them are within reasonable distance of the #7 train, which gets you right into midtown. The neighborhoods that are closer to Manhattan, like Astoria and Long Island City, cost more. Last year, I was paying $1100 for a one bedroom in Astoria, which is a fairly good deal.
In Brooklyn, there are great neighborhoods in Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Flatbush (I live there now) and Midwood. Coney Island is a dump. The subway situation in Brooklyn is a bit better than Queens since there are more lines closer together.
The New York TImes has a good real estate search page that lets you look for apartment ads that match your criteria.
Thanks Friedo, I’ll look into all of that. I am looking for 1 bedroom around 750-800 sq ft. My only two concerns are safety and clean.
I am coming from the Buffalo NY area so this would be a big change for me. I saw a nice place in Hempstead NY but I am not sure how far away that is from manhattan.
You still can find some 1 bedrooms around 750-800 sq ft in Brooklyn for around $1000. Bayridge is one of the great neighborhoods in Brooklyn and my Brother was paying $925 when he moved out last year. He was in 333 Ovington Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11209. You might want to look in that area.
It was a great neighborhood and the Subway will get you to Manhattan pretty well.
The area near the Brooklyn Bridge is supposed to be very nice now. I do not know about the prices. Even better commuting times.
I know Hoboken has gotten expensive, but is a very nice town to live in. Try hard to get a place in walking distance to the Path train/Ferry and parking in Hoboken is truly horrible.
Hey, I’m from Buffalo too! And I lived in NYC for 5 years. You’re right, its going to be a big change. You’re going from one of the cheapest places to live to one of the most expensive.
If you’re considering the suburbs, you might want to also look at Riverdale in the Bronx and Forest Hills in Queens. They’re both a little further out, so you can get a nice apartment at a better price (nice meaning the hallways are kept clean and the elevator always works). Also, think about if you could be flexible on square footage, 750-800 is pretty big for a 1BR by NYC standards. Good luck!
LOL. I go to school in hempstead and I live in Queens. Hempstead is a good hour from NYC with somewhat infrequent service on the relevant line of the LIRR (about once an hour). (plus, the LIRR costs WAY more than the NYC subway, my monthly pass to hempstead is $176) I would NOT advise routinely driving into Manhattan from Long Island during normal rush hours. There are two parallel highways, both parking lots 7:30-9am. Plus, that part of long island is just plain no fun. its Suburbia, not The City (the original planned subdivision, Levittown, is nearby).
I live in Kew Gardens, Queens, a quiet neighborhood, large city park, convenient to multiple subways lines… I’m pretty sure you can get a 1br for ~900 (base, since heat/water/gas is usually included the actual rent is a bit higher).
using a realtor might be worth your while. They do cost (usually 12% of annual rent) but they save you mucho time and aggravation.
Brooklyn is rather expensive without going into “deep” Brooklyn like Bay Ridge. I like Bay Ridge, but if your goal is to commute into Midtown Manhattan and stay under 1000/month I’d hazard that Queens is more convenient (your commute will likely be shorter). If your Manhattan destination is south of 14th St., though, that’s a different story – then I would say Brooklyn gets more attractive.
Since Brooklyn’s been talked about, I’ll talk about Queens. Long Island City in Queens is an ‘up and coming’ area; it’s a formerly industrial area that’s moving towards being more residential. It’s very close to Manhattan, just one or two subway stops away to Midtown. I did jury duty in the area south of the Queensboro Bridge (a.k.a. the 59th St. Bridge) and while it’s not fancy, I wouldn’t be afraid to live there myself. I know a couple of twentysomething coworkers who live there now, in fact.
Jackson Heights is also a reasonably good and convenient area, if you’re near the IND lines (the express E/F trains in particular at 74th St./Broadway) you’re only about 15 minutes away from Midtown.
Ditto for Woodside: close, convenient, reasonably safe and nice area. I have had close friends who had apartments in those parts of town 10-15 years ago, and these areas have only improved.
I live in Bayside/Flushing and certainly consider it a nice area, but the commute to Midtown by mass transit gets rather long, and as a fresh-outta-school guy on a budget you really don’t have a good alternative to the MTA. It’s what used to be called a “two-fare zone” (from before Metrocards introduced the free bus-to-subway transfers): you won’t be close to any subway line and will have to take a 15-30 minute bus ride just to get to Main St., or pony up and pay a lot more to ride the Long Island Rail Road, with its infrequent service. If I take the bus/subway to work in Midtown it’s a 55 minute commute minimum, with any sort of service delays stretching it out to over an hour, even an hour and a half :(.
You may also want to bite the bullet and work with a realtor. Real estate moves very fast in NYC, even rentals in the “Outer Boroughs”, and unless you’ve got a foothold here already (like a friend or relative who’s willing to let you crash for a week or two) and are willing the pound the pavement, it’s hard to find a good deal remotely.
I worked in NYC as a real estate agent for one year and the most important advice I would give you is, be flexible. Make a list of all the things that you feel you must have, would like to have, and can do without, and keep in mind that you are probably never going to find everything, let me re-phrase that, you will never find everything that you want at your price.
Also, I would suggest not having any pre-conceived notions about what kind of apartment you can get for $1000 in the NYC area. I’m certainly not saying that you can’t find something very nice, but if you’ve never looked for an apartment in NYC, you could be in for a bit of a shock. I will say that if you have any idea of living anywhere in Manhattan below 125th St or even a bit higher, you will not find a clean, decent apartment for that price.
I decided to make an edit, but was too late. This is what I wanted to say in the last paragraph:
And not that you even mentioned Manhattan, but you can pretty much forget about anything for $1000 unless you want to live at the northern extreme, and even then most places for that price will be pretty dicey.
Also, as an alternative to Hoboken, you might consider looking in Weehauken, which is to the north, but still quite close to Manhattan. There is no PATH (New Jersey Subway) access, but if you don’t mind buses, it’s pretty close to Manhattan.
Finally, after working with many prospective tenant in my year in real estate, I wish you all the luck in finding a great place.
Well, unless you get free parking on the Manhattan end, it won’t help very much. Owning a car isn’t any more expensive in NYC than anywhere else (except for the insurance costs); it’s keeping a car that’s the problem. Parking in particular is the problem. Paying for garage space in Manhattan is as much or more than rent for a studio apartment in most other cities in this country.
Or do you mean a car service? Most or all major finance firms, for example, have vouchers for car service rides home when you work late (after 9pm). But that won’t get you in to the office in the morning.
If you really do have free use of a car and no issues with parking, you still have to ask yourself if you’re willing to deal with the annoyance of actually driving in Manhattan during rush hour, competing with all the cabs, buses and trucks). Unless you’re going to be working “off hours”, like the night shift or something.
Personally I would recommend riding a motorcycle or scooter around town. That’s what I do now whenever possible. Cheaper and faster and a lot more fun than taking the bus/train, and no parking issues to worry about (just getting sideswiped by a car, oblivious pedestrian or psycho bike messenger, or eaten by a pothole).
I was living downtown near the trade center till a few years ago. Not the most neighborhoody neighborhood, but safe, quiet and a lot less expensive than other parts of the city. Of course, at the time they were paying 500 bucks a month of our rent in order to get people to move downtown, and that has since stopped.
But, of Manhattan neighborhoods, it’s one of the less expensive areas, while still being livable.
I would highly suggest Jersey City. Just as close as Hoboken, but not as expensive. The neighborhood around the Grove Street Path Station is particularly nice (but still affordable). Avoid anything in the Heights, since it’s not that convenient to public transportation, and Journal Square is hit or miss but great for cheap Indian food.
Howdy, neighbor. I’m in Richmond Hill, right on the KG border (and across the street from Forest Park). I also went to school in Hempstead (Hofstra - many, many, many moons ago), but I was local when doing it.
You’ll have to hunt to find decent for $1,000. One of the things you must definitely consider is access to transportation into midtown. Unless you need your company car daily, you are better off not driving. All of the places listed here are good choices. A note about living in Queens and Brooklyn - nearly every block is a mini-UN. I’ve never lived in the Devil’s Armpit…excuse me, New Jersey[sup]1[/sup]…so I can’t speak to those areas. I’ve seen many people from mostly homogenous towns and cities get overwhelmed by the multi-cultural aspects that are a way of life for NYers.
So I have made a list so far of areas to look based on all of your suggestions:
[ul][li]Kew Gardens, Queens[/li][li]Woodside, Queens[/li][li]Jackson Heights, Queens[/li][li]Weehauken, New Jersey[/li][li]Bergen County, New Jersey[/li][li]Jersey City, New Jersey-Grove Street Path Station area[/ul][/li]
The company car is something I’ll have to use everyday; it’s a sales rep job that requires you to have samples, etc.
I am really just looking for clean, realtively safe, and ~40 minute commute to most of manhattan.
Thanks guys, this advice has been great! I think if I get this job I am just going to take a week and go down there and explore these areas in detail.
Hmm. Aside from helping you find a place to live, I’d want to know a bit more about this arrangement. Are you going to be schlepping stuff to other locations in Manhattan, or is the company simply based in Manhattan and you’ll be using this car to drive samples around to customers and prospective clients in the wider Metro area?
To get right to the point: if you’ll be parking a lot around Manhattan during business hours to run in and out of various buildings, you will likely be double parking or parking illegally fairly often. There are limited time commercial parking zones in Midtown, but even then most of the time the spots are all already taken by trucks and construction vehicles, or people with parking exception placards who park there all day like those given to police and fire dept. personnel based in the area, court officials, the handicapped, etc.
If this is the case, find out if the company is going to be paying for your parking tickets or not 'cause you WILL be getting them to do your job. (Just ask any FedEx or UPS delivery driver.)
