That’s a pretty good radius. You could go all the way to the end of the E, F, N, R or 7 trains in Queens (Queens is more accessible to midtown Manhattan, though, and Brooklyn is more accessible to downtown), and there are a lot of perfectly nice neighborhoods along those lines. Flushing, Corona, Jackson Heights, Woodside, Sunnyside and Long Island City are all along the 7 train. On the E/F lines, you’ve got Jamaica Estates, Jamaica, Kew Gardens, Forest Hills, Rego Park, and then you’re into Jackson Heights. On the N and Q lines, you’ve got Long Island City and Astoria. If you’re willing to include a bus ride in your commute, you’ve got Maspeth and Middle Village. On the A line, you’ve got Ozone Park and Woodhaven and Howard Beach, but those are long rides.
There’s a wide range of rents and sales prices in all those neighborhoods, too much to go into here. And it depends on what you want to rent – a studio in a walkup, or a three-bedroom in a doorman building?
Brooklyn and Queens are huge. Either one could stand alone as a significant city (and Brooklyn did for a long time). They’re physically larger than Manhattan (Queens is something like five times the size of Manhattan), and each of them have substantially larger populations than Manhattan.
You could even live out on Long Island if you are OK with an hour commute. I grew up in Merrick, Long Island and from there it’s a 45 minute LIRR ride (stopping at all local stops. An express train would be quicker) and you could then take a 20 minute subway ride from Penn Station to Wall Street.
There are a couple of ferries that run from Wall Street to somewhere in Jersey about 45 minutes away.
Wall Street is actually sort of a pain in the ass to get to from the suburbs. You would need to take the train into Hoboken or Jersey City and then take the ferry over (about 15 more minutes), take LIRR into Penn Station and then take the subway (another 15-20 minutes) or take Metro North into Grand Central and then take the 4-5-6 (who knows how long).
Probably why most of the investment banks are in Midtown now.
Plus, you get to a certain point and you aren’t living “New York style” anymore. That is to say, apartment living, no car and quick access to Manhattan. You are living “guy who commutes from the suburbs style”, which people do up to 2 hours each way.
Like the one bedroom I share with my wife in Hoboken.
Seriously though, it depends. We own our condo, so it’s been hard for us to find a place that’s larger with a better location without being 3x the price. And we don’t want to rent. So that sort of eliminates Manhattan for us.
We have friends who are about the same income bracket, maybe a bit higher, who live in Manhattan. Some of them have really nice places, mostly around the edges of Midtown - places like Hells Kitchen, Murray Hill or Turtle Bay. Decent size (for Manhattan) 1 or 2 bedrooms, doorman building, decent views. Probably around $3-6k a month in rent.
But really, these are the same apartments they would have lived in when they were in their 20s. Except there would be at least one roommate in each bedroom and a divider wall splitting the biggest room into another bedroom.
You never see anything “huge” in Manhattan though.
We just moved out of Harlem and to the 'burbs in MA. We lived in multiple apartments during our years in NYC and we paid between $1395 and $1600 for two bedrooms all over Harlem, East Harlem, and Washington Heights.
It isn’t crazy expensive to live in NYC like everyone claims, but you do have to understand what you are paying for with your rent. Unless you are paying significantly more than we ever did you generally won’t be getting a dishwasher or a washer and dryer. You generally won’t be getting more than 800 square feet of space. You generally won’t be getting a doorman or other posh amenities. What you are getting is the ability to live a short train ride away from all of the most amazing stuff in the world. Fabulous museums, theater, opera, nightclubs, or whatever else you might be interested in will be in abundance.
We left because with a baby it really wasn’t workable for us any longer. Stuff that normally wouldn’t bother us became a REALLY BIG DEAL with a kid. I’m loving our new place too. Twice the size of our last apartment with all the appliances I could ever want, chandelier, fireplace, etc. and all at the same price as what we had been paying in Harlem is a pretty sweet deal. But I’m not going to lie, I miss being in the city. Our neighbors here are sweet and quiet, unlike our insane neighbors in our old apartment. There are no drug deals in our hallway here (unless you count prescription deliveries for the elderly woman downstairs) unlike in our last apartment. There are no used condoms, broken glass, or giant piles of dog crap on the sidewalk like where we lived in NYC. But I can’t decide to hop on the train and go wherever I want for $2.50 either. I’m happy here but I will always look fondly on the years I got to spend in New York.
Yeah, I was just curious, my wife and I have a rowhouse in DC in one of the outer neighborhoods. It’s a lot more house than we’d get closer in to downtown, or one of the fashionable neighborhoods. Usually, we day dream about what our salaries could get us in towns with cheaper real estate than DC, but I was just wondering what life would be like in an even hotter market.
Just to reiterate my prev post, I live 1 hr from the FD in Forest Hills and pay 2075 for a large 2br 2ba (both are true bedrooms, and full baths) modern kitchen with dishwasher and five burner gas stove. That price includes gas, heat and water. It’s considered quite expensive for queens, very safe, many national retailers, ultrafamily friendly (which is one reason we want to move, too many ultra annoying mommies driving mega strollers).
Just so as you guys know- a studio in SF can easily be $2000. One Bdrm half again. In San Jose, about half that. In decent neighborhoods, that is. Not great areas, just decent. .
Me, too . For the last 25 years in a house that I own in Woodhaven, which is only about an hour by train from Wall Street. My household income is below $250K and so are my neighbors’
The other thing people don’t understand is that NYC is cheaper than a lot of other places in the country. As far as rent goes, yeah it is high and you are living a much sparser existence than you would elsewhere, but transportation becomes mere pennies on the dollar for what you pay elsewhere. With our needing a car, insurance, gas, etc. to get around here our cost of living has gone up dramatically since we moved from NYC. We get A LOT more for our money here so I’m not complaining, but the "it is SO expensive to live in New York"meme is really a bad stereotype perpetuated by people who love to hate on the city.
No offense to you New Yorkers and hey someone has to live there, but I will take my 12 acres, scenic pond, quiet nights and 4200 sq ft 4bd/4ba with 3 car garage and 30x40 out building for the same 2500 a month! :eek:
The Rent is too damn high, but it’s nowhere near what people who don’t know jack about NYC and don’t want to know jack about NYC will baselessly claim that it is.
I live at the end of the 6 line in the Bronx, and it’s about a hour subway trip to where I work (Greenwich Village). Add another 10 minutes for Wall Street.
We pay ~$1500 for a two bedroom, 1 bath in a medium-sized apartment building (about 40 units). More typical housing in our neighborhood is an apartment in a two- or three- family home, with yards and everything. The neighborhood is “city” in the sense that we don’t have a car and walk to everything (banks, groceries, restaurants, bars, bakery, deli, etc). However, it is more like residential neighborhoods in Queens than it is the heart of Manhattan. For example, there is a nice variety of family restaurants, and even fancy Italian, but for anything really foodie, we’d need to hop on the train to get into Manhattan (which we don’t mind). We have a toddler so it’s a nice balance for us between “city living” and “residential.”
It’s not a very well known neighborhood, for New York, despite being close to a subway and having relatively cheap rents. This is something I like about it. I saw a hipster the other day in my local deli … it got my blood pressure going. I hope he was just visiting his nice Italian grandma.
