New York

unless you would like to rent my room!

d'oh. I want to move there eventually but there's no way I could make enough money right now, I think.

you spend more money but you make more money. You also live in a room in a an apt shared with many other people and often don't have much space for the same amount of money other people in other places pay to live in larger apartments. It's just about what you're comfortable with. You also maybe don't save much money because you spend more on rent then you should. Depending on what kind of work you can do, there are still certain jobs and those jobs will still pay more then in other places.

Thanks everyone for the responses. My dream may not match up with reality. So I guess it comes down to is this: how many roommates can you handle? - LOL

For what it's worth, I'm just your average Joe-Blow who works basic office-jobs, never having gone past a bachelor's degree. I don't make a lot of money, just middle-class where I live (which would probably be considered dirt-poor in NY).

i do it by sharing a small studio apt with my girlfriend, eating at home a lot, packing a lunch, getting my transportation comped by my job, doing laundry at my parents house, stealing internet from neighbors, not owning a tv, and pirating all my tv and movies

i do it by being a broke-ass bitch always on the verge of a serious situation but having fun anyway

see the thing for me is that in my field, i will make the same money somewhere else, so...

also happy hour specials and owning a flask

tehresa and flask otm!

the other obvious rule is...how far do you want to live from manhattan? how desirable a neighborhood? For relatively little money you can live in parts of Queens and Brooklyn that are totally pleasant and cheap and awesome, and you're a 20 minute train ride from parts of Queens and Brooklyn that are totally cool and hip and a 40 minute train ride from Manhattan, where everybody wants to go for some reason.

sunnyside is lovely!

love it

You also live in a room in an apt shared with many other people

As if it needs to be said, haha & fuck this.

sunnyside is lovely but Woodside and Jackson Heights are even cheaper! Though the south-side of Sunnyside is still pretty cheap and you can walk to the industrial part of greenpoint where everybody lives now anyway.

Looked up Woodside and Jackson Heights. Both look nice! I guess rent averages around 1300 a month for a one bedroom. I'm paying 900 a month where I live in Portland.

This may seem like a stupid question but do you guys own a car?

you don't even have to walk! you can just take the B24!
xpost

nope no car. recently joined Zipcar but I've barely used it. you really don't need one.

yeah. i would say this is not a good time to move to ny.

nytimes disagrees! i guess if u can find a job rents are declining/steady in a lot of neighborhoods due to rising vacancy rates this seems true to me fwiw

the real trick may be getting a job.

Cool, thanks. Yeah, I wouldn't move there without a job lined up, which probably means I'll never move there. :)

I do own a car, which makes living in Queens much easier. These areas aren't for everyone. If you like to leave your house and walk down the street and go to a record store or a cool bar, you can forget about it. If you do nothing but eat tacos and empenadas and comparing where to get the best thai crispy duck salad, then you're golden. A lot of people who end up in queens are domesticating, like moving in with a significant other and decided that cheap rent is more important than hanging out at a crowded Williamsburg bar.

It's really hard to find a cheap 1 bedroom in New York. My theory is that they just don't exist. Pretty much every 1 bedroom apartment has some shitty little extra room that was probably used for the baby or storage in the early 20th century but is now being sold as a second bedroom, so a 1 bedroom is 1300 but for 1500 you get a 2 bedroom where the second bedroom often sucks. Not always though.

Having a car in Woodside is great and parking is pretty easy, but in Jackson Heights it can be a nightmare. Jackson Heights has better train options, with the 7,E,R,V,F etc.

pretty much every 1 bedroom apartment has some shitty little extra room that was probably used for the baby or storage in the early 20th century but is now being sold as a second bedroom, so a 1 bedroom is 1300 but for 1500 you get a 2 bedroom where the second bedroom often sucks.

This is disturbingly OTM. I recently tromped all over Bed-Stuy to a place that was about 6 blocks farther from the train than the ad said it was, only to be told that the "second bedroom" was a small alcove off the living room that wouldn't fit a double bed and didn't even have anywhere to hang a DOOR.

The apt was incredibly beautiful and well-restored but under no possible circumstance was it a 2-bedroom.

this picture in times real estate this weekend was lolz

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/05/17/realestate/17cover650.5.jpg

Michael Robinson checks out an alleged bedroom in Manhattan. He is still looking.

^^^^^^ Jamiroquai video?

HAHAHA

would that even fit a twin bed???

a hammock maybe

it wouldnt even fit jay kays hat

haha as soon as dan posted abt tiny bedrooms i thought of that picture

I do own a car, which makes living in Queens much easier. These areas aren't for everyone. If you like to leave your house and walk down the street and go to a record store or a cool bar, you can forget about it. If you do nothing but eat tacos and empenadas and comparing where to get the best thai crispy duck salad, then you're golden. A lot of people who end up in queens are domesticating, like moving in with a significant other and decided that cheap rent is more important than hanging out at a crowded Williamsburg bar.
- dan selzer

HA HA yeah, not looking to settle down anytime soon. Thanks for the info. Maybe I'll just make a mil a year and live in the upper eastside.

Or stay in Portland and keep my 40k a year job. ;)

if you have a 40k job of the type that your salary would jump up in nyc, you'll be perfectly fine. you'd be fine with 40. not like, super luxuriously comfortable, but definitely not dirt poor.

im makin a little more than half that and beyond the stuff i listed above im not making any major sacrifices to live here!

tho i dont know--one of the big elephants in the room is also your social life, your friend circle, i.e. what kinds of restaurants and bars your friends will want to go to. i do OK cuz most of my friends are making similar amnts of money and have similar budgets; kids i know who are brokers/i-bankers (or WERE brokers/i-bankers, HA HA HA HA HA HA) & spend time w/ their co-workers or others from similar social circles tend to spend a lot more on a weekend/night out than i do

yah being realistic i would be... stretched on under $40K of course its totally doable but im not exactly sharing a studio apt in brklyn idk

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2009/05/17/realestate/17cover650.5.jpg

this man is 9ft tall btw... liberal media...

I know that's not true because Uniqlo and H+M don't even make pants that fit me.

And I'm only 8ft tall.

Though that guy is a lot more slender.

special ordered from the serbian uniqlo!

tho i dont know--one of the big elephants in the room is also your social life, your friend circle, i.e. what kinds of restaurants and bars your friends will want to go to. i do OK cuz most of my friends are making similar amnts of money and have similar budgets; kids i know who are brokers/i-bankers (or WERE brokers/i-bankers, HA HA HA HA HA HA) & spend time w/ their co-workers or others from similar social circles tend to spend a lot more on a weekend/night out than i do

― rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Monday, May 18, 2009 1:14 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Well, if I moved to NY, I wouldn't have any friends. Problem solved! And that makes it a little intimidating. Are a lot of you guys from NY originally?

I grew up 30 minutes away in New Jersey, but I never say I'm "from New York". Which is funny because people in other cities tend to say they're from that city even when they live 2 hours away. Poseurs.

im from NJ too and i always say im from NJ--partly because if i pulled the "im from NY" card and ppl found out i was from NJ id get no end of shit, and partly because, fuck you, NJ rules

Agreed, but despite all this NJ love, I would recommend against living there if you're goal is to live it up and party in NY. Yes, Jersey City is pretty cool and has come a long way...but it's not MUCH cheaper then Queens or Brooklyn, while it is MUCH less cool and much less convenient.

otm

totally better options for getting across the East river then the Hudson. especially late night

and cheaper options...

for now.

http://www.pixelcase.com.au/vr/2009/newyork/

ooooh!

Michael Robinson checks out an alleged bedroom in Manhattan. He is still looking.

i could probably make it work, but yeah, forget about a "bed"

I work in the public sector for a comparatively low to middling salary and share a two-bedroom in Queens for a very reasonable rent. (That makes me sound so boring!) I'm not really pinched financially, though I would be more so if I had my own apartment, which I would like to have, someday. You could find a studio in Queens for around $1,000, so that wouldn't be much different than your Portland rent, though it would be surely lesser in space and amenities. I don't have a car--not having to drive (or own a car) is for me, one of the most convenient aspects of NYC living. There's a large middle class in Queens--not so much in Manhattan anymore.

Thanks Virginia Plain! I wouldn't be opposed to having a roommate, assuming it wasn't a psycho (I had some pretty nutty roomies in college). I have about 9 more months until my lease is up to figure it out.

did the pollen etc kill anybody today? i thought first it was my acid reflux, but since noon I've been coughing myself to tears.