The sky-high cost of rent in NYC is hardly in dispute.
But in all seriousness, how bad is it? Like, if you’re still within NYC city limits but don’t mind renting a dump with a long commute, are you still looking at sky-high rent? In other words, can you find a [comparatively] affordable place if you aren’t looking for a 2BR with a fireplace on the Upper West Side? What if you’re OK with a studio in Staten Island?
“I live in a studio on Staten Island.” is the saddest sentence in the English language. 
Studios for less than a grand/month exist, though maybe not in Manhattan. If you have a high tolerance for commuting, NYC absolutely has some affordable rents out there. Craigslist will give you an idea.
West Harlem is a nice area with affordable rents, especially if one has roommates. Same for parts of Brooklyn. It’s unlikely a dump with a long commute would have a “sky high” rent although I guess it depends on what you consider “sky high.” I pay $670 to live with two roommates I never see in a decent apartment next to a good grocery store, a park, lots of other shopping, it’s easy for me to get to work or anywhere else in the city, etc.
I think people who don’t live in New York misjudge how expensive it is. If you live within your means and don’t feel the need to go crazy and party every night then it’s perfectly affordable.
ETA: For the sake of making my point, I’ll disclose that my salary is in the low 5 figures, yet I’m still able to live in a normal apartment in a safe part of the city, I’m able to afford health insurance, I have a 401K and measly savings.
It’s TOO DAMN HIGH, or so I hear.
I’ve had a few friends move that direction to work in the city but ended up renting across the river in New Jersey. The rents are much more affordable and the commute is pretty easy via bus.
I saw the Rent Is Too Damn High guy! Jimmy MacMillan. He was doing some sort of (very tiny) rally near Washington Square Park yesterday.
Just to confirm that we’re all speaking the same language, “normal apartment” means that one is not sleeping in a converted common room, kitchen, or crawl space, right? 
Haha, yes. I live in a three bedroom with two other people. We have a functioning kitchen and bathroom.
I live in eastern queens in a desirable, safe, and somewhat chi-chi neighborhood. I pay 2075 for a 2br/2bath, heat/ water included. It takes an hour on the nose to get to my job in the Financial district.
It’s a huge apartment with a decent sized kitchen and dishwasher. By huge i mean 1/3 of the living room is just empty, and we dont use one of the bathrooms. Sadly, it’s in a shocking state of disrepair thats just inside the bounds of habitability. Plus any recent work was done with startling ineptitude. Like the painters… Who painted over the circuit breakers. The silicone sealant in the shower is smeared all over the shower floor. A few weeks ago one of my kitchen drawers fell apart, on inspection it was held together with staples and one stripped screw. That sort of stuff. The super is also a useless douchebag. Recently, 2 of 4 building washing machine were out of service for 4 months. Because its a owner owned co-op, we have little recourse other than leaving. We like the space but the building is shite.
Previously we rented a perfectly maintained 1br for 1150 (great building, great apt, great price but we really need that computer/craft room at this point) and a smaller 2br for 1650 that was quite nice-- but it was near the LIRR tracks and also had severe unresolved water hammer. Long story short, it was too loud to live there and we moved.
So, I mean, the stories are sort of true, though, right? Because this Tumblr exists.
For a $1250 a month price tag, you can get a nice 1BR apartment in White Plains with no less than 3 closets, a pantry, and a personal washer and dryer
OR you can get a cruddy looking one in Brooklyn where the bathtub is simply standing in the middle of the kitchen and there is no living room. There may be an elevated train behind the building and it may be over a bar.
Pick and choose wisely depending on the lifestyle you want. You may prefer commuting in. Many of the cities and towns nearby have express trains that will arrive at grand central in 30 minutes. Having roomates evens the playing field down to affordable practically anywhere, but not everyone can put up with roomates.
My first apartment was a $800/month studio in Flushing. It was in a nice newly-constructed building, about three blocks past the end of the #7 line. Not bad at all. I think it was under 300sf and had a kitchenette and small bathroom.
My current place is a co-op that I bought in a pre-war building a block south of Prospect Park that was in quite distressed condition when I purchased it. It’s gigantic (by NYC standards) at 1500sf and the monthly maintenance is less than the rent I paid on that studio. I’ve been slowly fixing it up and sometimes I imagine how the hell I would fit all my crap in that old studio. There’s something to be said for the simple life. Until you want a dedicated home office and a fancy-ass kitchen.
If you have to ask…
It isn’t nearly fair to compare white plains living to Brooklyn based solely on the rent. In white plains you’ll have to be a 2 car household, in Brooklyn it’s very unlikely you will own a car; if you do it’s solely out of preference, not need.
So when you compare Brooklyn rent to white plains rent + insurance + gas, you get something a lot more comparable and the White Plains advantage is far less clear, and possibly nonexistent.
However it is true that within the world of “new York city living” there are far more options than tv would have you beleive.
I hear you can still rent a broom closet half time for $2000 a month. That’s for the day half, if you want to stay there at night it costs more.
You don’t HAVE to be an any-car household in White Plains. It does have buses. What you’re talking about is plain old pros and cons, and that’s a separate deal from rent prices. Pros and cons are much less easy to quantify. We don’t know what stuff HeyHomie has or doesn’t have, so we can’t put their stuff in a list for them.
The advantages you get living in one place over another are more often based on your lifestyle than anything else. I don’t feel it’s weird matching rent for rent because it’s your lifestyle that points at choice A or choice B and says “I like living that way more and don’t mind the disadvantages”
For instance, I ended up not living in the city because I liked my car and I realized just how much I liked nature preserves when I imagined living in brooklyn for the foreseeable future. That means more to me than whatever it’s worth in hard cash.
If a roommate isn’t a big deal to you, you can live in the best areas in Manhattan for pretty cheap. If you don’t want a roommate, it gets more difficult, but Harlem has a some affordable rents for decent apartments. I think Harlem is awesome. Pbbth may drop in to this thread with more detailed info on rents in Harlem.
Perhaps you would be more comfortable in Weehawken?
Yeah, what sort of madman would be ok with such a thing?
Although way out on the far end of Staten Island, it’s actually almost rural.
Staten Island is basically a foreign country.
Hey! I have friends that live on Staten Island. At least I think they do, I’d never bother going there to actually find out.