KatPen

My daughter is planning to spend the summer in New York - around 3 months - probably from end of June (lucky her!!!) She is looking for cheap (but decent) accommodation...studio apt/ room to rent (maybe), sub-let (is that legal?) etc. Any ideas of where to start to look? What to be careful of? Thinking of Williamsburg because her cousin is there...or other options convenient to Manhatten.
thanks for any advice.

Aduchamp1

The "L" train goes to Williamsburg and as it has become extremely popular, they are moving further out on the same line to Bushwick. I would not recommend Bushwick to a newcomer to NYC but she can also look in between.


Please note it is spelled Manhattan.

mclaurie

This will be a daunting task unless she has a decent budget. She probably needs to find a situation where she can share an apt. What's her monthly budget?

DebitNM

How old is she? Perhaps she can use student housing to help find a place? Also, if she is under age [21??] will she even be able to rent a place?

doug_stallings

It's expensive but quite doable. There are always loads of roommate ads on Craigslist and other sources, and sublets in NYC are common (and legal if they are 30 days or more), particularly in the summer. It's unlikely she'll be able to get her own studio apartment in Manhattan unless she's willing to pay $3000 or more per month; if that's the budget, choices abound.

Just realize: Cheap and budget in NYC for one's own apartment is a minimum of $1,200 per month, and that could be in an iffy neighborhood relatively far from Manhattan. She might look into a long-term stay at one of the YMCAs. There are YMCAs all over NYC, not just in Manhattan, and they are tailor-made for this kind of situation. Sadly, there are relatively few other options of this type.

suze

With aa question like this, it's really helpful to state a specific budget range.

As mentioned truly 'cheap' and 'decent' (to me meaning under $1000/mo) and NYC will be a huge challenge. Especially to someone brand new to the city.

bluestar

She could look around the New York Habitat website to see if any studios or apartment shares would work for her budget and dates. There would be an agency fee in addition to the listed rent.

http://www.nyhabitat.com/new-york-apartment.html

tomfuller

She could stay a few nights at the HI Manhattan Hostel while looking for just the right affordable housing. http://hinewyork.org/
This would give her the time to make a good non-rushed choice.

KatPen

Thanks for all the suggestions so far. We will look into the various websites and would be happy for more. She is 32 and we really had no idea of budget but your replies have given us direction. (It might have to be a 2 month stay if accommodation is too high. That's what we are trying to figure out.) It is hard to know if to close on something sight unseen in advance...or arrive and spend the first few days/ weeks? hunting around...
Are there reputable websites for sharing apartments? How do I find out about student housing or subletting?
As usual, great advice from the list and sorry Aduchamp for misspelling. Thanks all again.

doug_stallings

If she's a student, every university in NYC has a student housing office that facilitates rentals and shares. But if she's not going to be on a program affiliated with an NYC university, then they're certainly not going to help a 32 year-old woman find an apartment.

suze

I wouldn't want to commit online/sight-unseen. In a city like NY neighborhoods change atmosphere even from block to block, building to building.

I wouldn't be against trying to live near her cousin, since that will help get her acclimated, and must be OK since they are living there.

Austin

I would try homeaway.com you can click on manhattan and go by neighborhood, etc.

I have stayed in an apartment in NYC a few years ago 3 times. I like the location - Chelsea - and the owner/ . It is homeaway #291855 Large apartment. But its nearly $5000 a month.

bethke14

I did this 2 years ago as a graduate student. It's an arduous task, but doable. Craigslist is the most common way to find a roommate/sublet situation for the summer. The challenge: many, many people are doing the same thing. I sent probably 30 emails for different places and received only 3-4 responses. The least expensive studio I found was $1,800. There are lots of roommate/share/sublet situations to be found for various prices, depending on the location, size, amenities, number of roommates, whether it's a true multi-bedroom, etc.

I ended up paying $900/month for a 7 x 7 foot bedroom in a former tenement building on the LES. There was no living room, just a tiny kitchen and bath. And yep, agreed and paid (using paypal) after doing a skype tour of the place, so mostly sight unseen. My roommate told me that he received 40 responses to a craigslist ad he posted for 24 hours. It was far and away the cheapest apartment I found. My friends mostly spent about $1,200-$1,600/mo.

There is definitely something to coming to the city for a few days and staying in a hostel. A lot of summer sublets are snatched up in less than 24 hours, so being able to meet potential roommates and visit places could be a good thing.

Williamsburg is, for the most part, quite safe. Though parts of it are a bit of a walk from the subway. Also, people have started to expand the boundaries of what they call "Williamsburg" and it will sometimes include large swaths Bushwick (which, though great, is a grittier and NOT Williamsburg.) So, really look at the location on a map.

There are definitely other neighborhoods in Brooklyn worth looking in to: Fort Greene, Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Windsor Terrace, Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill. Again, make sure you're looking closely at boundaries.

Mostly, it takes a lot of patience and a lot of faith in other people. Good luck.

nytraveler

You have gotten a lot of good advice above. One note - for a 2 or 3 month sublet she may have to pay the entire amount upfront. Since it takes at least 3 months to evict someone not paying - few people want to take a risk with someone they know is only staying 2 or 3 months.

mclaurie

Nyhabitat.com

KatPen

Great advice. After a long initiation to Craigslist, it appears that things are published very close to availability date...so there is not much to do until a few weeks before. Is that a correct assumption? Also, I finally realized that when it says "roommate" it means what I would call a "flatmate" and not someone to share the same room with. And I found it confusing that they don't always mention if the price is for a day/week/ or month...and for the uninitated it is hard to tell. But it seems that most are for the month. Can I assume that if it doesn't say - it is monthly rent?

MFNYC

Most of the recent college grads are moving to Bushwick and Sunset Park areas because Williamsburg has become too expensive for their tight budgets. Although your daughter is 32, so she probably won't necessarily want to room in a small apartment with 3 other recent college grads.

There are also areas in Queens that are easy access to midtown, that are reasonable, like Astoria, Jackson Heights and Long Island City. The Brooklyn areas tend to have better access to lower Manhattan.

I think the advice given above, about being close to the subway is a good point. You can use hopstop.com so see what the various transportation options are to get from one place to another.

Keep checking Craiglist, and the other websites mentioned. ALso the village voice classifieds (www.villagevoice.com).

MFNYC

The recent grads I know of pay roughly between $650 and $1000/month for apartment shares in the Bushwick/Sunset Park areas of Brooklyn, and they all room with at least 2 or 3 others. And yes, "roommate", actually means apartment-mate in most cases.

nytraveler

No - roommate may mean exactly that. You often have 4 people sharing a 2 bedroom apt to bring down the rent. Once young people start working and can spend more they usually try to each have their own room - but that will raise the price considerably. (A couple young women in my office each pay $2200 to $2400 per month to share a 2 bedroom with one othr person - GRamercy Park.) Where a bunch of the buildings are dormatoriums (mostly kids out of school less than 5 years).

MFNYC

Also, a lot of the "individual" bedrooms, may be a converted dining area or a divided single bedroom kind of thing, so they tend to be small. So it's not uncommon for 4 people to live in what was meant to be a 2 bedroom, but were somehow comverted into a 4 bedroom.