STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

this for your friend:

 

http://www.4wallsinnyc.com/harlemapartments.htm

 

it's about harlem

carmenb513 wrote:

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this for your friend:   http://www.4wallsinnyc.com/harlemapartments.htm   it's about harlem

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thank you, carmen! I was just trying to find something on Harlem. I'm also trying to look in realtor.com - not quite sure how to pin it down to Harlem besides streets...

Here's a link to a recent article in Time Out New York on the current rental market and some neighborhoods with relatively affordable housing.


www.timeoutny.com





-- Edited by Hedvig at 15:28, 2006-05-12

cc wrote:

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I live on the Upper East Side - all the way east. I love it and the section I'm in is cheap compared to other parts of Manhattan. I would never recommend it as an 'inexpensive' place to live temporarily but I don't know what sort of price range you have in mind. Lower Manhattan is great but again, not what I would consider inexpensive. Any time I've ever looked at apartments downtown I've been turned off by the size:cost ratio. Also the only non-outrageously expensive loft spaces I've ever seen in Manhattan were technically commercial/work spaces that people were living in illegally. Of course people find deals all the time but it might not be easy for you since you don't already live here and might have time constraints. When I think of a cheapish place to live temporarily I think of Queens - Astoria or Long Island City - which is where I lived right after college. There are parts of Jersey which are nicer and might even have shorter commutes but I have a bunch of weird hangups which make me anti-Jersey.

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yeah - I figured the studios were zoned commercial... for rental, as little as possible - I know I could find studios for $700-1000 in the city. Granted, they are small... I could afford more, I just don't want to spend it on rent. just need room for a bed and clothes anyway, right?

another jerseyite here.  it's hard to give objective advice b/c i feel like in this area you get weirdly attached to  your neighborhood.

i *love* living in jersey. when i first moved to the nyc area i knew off the bat that i couldn't afford manhattan. i looked a lot in brooklyn b/c it was where i wanted to live, but essentially i was priced out of all the really great areas.  i ended up taking a sublet in jersey city, and then when i had to leave that i was too tired to go through the hassle of looking in brooklyn again (i say hassle b/c essentially when you're trying to find a good deal you will get the run around a lot i.e. seeing a posting for something that is allegedly in williamsburg or parkslope and ending up looking at an apt in bushwick or sunset park).  since i already lived in jersey city it was easier to sort through listings b/c as soon as someone gave me an address i knew off the bat if it was an area i wanted to live in. imo this is the hardest part of finding affordable housing in this area, esp. in the places that are still emerging. a lof of it is block by block so you never know what to expect unless you're already familiar with the area.

right now i live in downtown jersey city and i adore it. it's safe, cute, and an easy commute. it takes 25 minutes to get to midtown. i guess the best testament to my love is that i actually decided not to move to the uws (to be closer to school)  this fall b/c i love where i live much more than the uws. obvs this is a personal preference, but i find the uws kind of dull and it wasn't worth shelling out the extra money for an apt. especially since i would have to get a roommate and pay more. however that's my personal bias. i usually don't go past 33rd street on a regular basis, so it works out well for me.

here's a list of pros/cons, hopefully this will give you some insight. however  i can honestly say my advice to your *friend* would be to start in manhattan, get a sense of things and then when the hubby comes start really looking.

pro -- as mckenke said i actually enjoy leaving the city. at heart i'm a bit of a suburbanite so i like coming home to peace & quiet and trees. also i love the fact that there is a strong sense of community here (i'm sure you would find the same in brooklyn)  i know my neighbors and this extends beyond the people in my building. in the summer there are always garage sales and stuff like that, which i find endearing

pro -- my neighborhood is very diverse. i feel like when i walk around i see all sorts of ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. there are tons of young people, but also families (both those just starting out and those with older children) and lots of different ethnic backgrounds.

pro -- again nature. obvs there is central park in manhattan, which is great but i find the idea of taking the subway to the park (like to just hang out or go for a run strange) i guess if you're going to excercise it's okay to run 40 blocks, but running 40 city blocks is not really relaxing. i live near two small parks that are very cute, and a 15 minute walk from the waterfront, which is gorgeous.  i love to run outdoors, and running along the hudson is a high point. i wouldn't  have that proximity to the water unless i lived way downtown, and then price becomes a factor.

con -- it's still manhattan. you have to place a value on that for yourself, but i will say it doesn't have as many amenities as nyc or even brooklyn. there's still tons of stuff (mainly a huge supermarket, which rocks -- though it can get damn crowded on sat/sun afternoons) but it's not like i live near a 5 star restaurant or anything like . there are however lots of cute little mom & pop type cafes/bakeries/tea houses/coffee shops, etc. but there aren't a lot of boutiques and stuff like that. this is definitely a neighborhood on the up & up esp. considering the fact that the nyc area housing market never truly goes down, and if i had

con -- sometimes taking the path late at night (like 3 or 4 am) sucks. not that it's unsafe... i would actually never take the subway by myself late at night, but i have no qualms about hoping on the path. also a cab is ridiculously expensive b/c it's out of state so they will charge you $40+ for a 10 minute drive.

pro -- transportation is great. the path is super safe and very clean. i've been taking the path for about 4 years now, and i have only encountered service problems once. on the contrary i always hear subway horror stories... the train brokedown or my personal favorite, a police investigation which actually happened to me the other day when i was trying to go uptown. it's 25 minutes to midtown and 10 minutes downtown.

pro -- the price. as karina said jersey city is a bit pricier than bergen county, but i think for the most part it's a bit cheaper than a similar area (in terms of proximity to manhattan) than brooklyn. i live downtown and you can easily find a studio or one bedroom for $1000 (i pay less than that for my apt which is a large studio -- it's just missing a door)

hth! let me know if you want more info.

-- Edited by honey at 22:44, 2006-05-12

I totally second Bergen County. I live 20 minutes away from the city, and I think the bus fare is something like $1.25, and the train from here is less than $2. Housing also has a huge range from very affordable apartments, to houses in the million-dollar range. That's one of the things I like best - there are all kinds of people here, and ALL kinds of shopping!

Karina wrote:

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cc - just curious to know what your weird hangups are about jersey?

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I don't want to hijack this thread but it's pretty much all transportation related. I don't want to live someplace where I would need a car to get around or where my life would be a lot easier if I had a car. I also prefer living someplace where the trains and buses run all night and fairly frequently after 12-1AM and where I can take a cab home if I want to. I grew up in a semi-suburban part of the city with limited, annoying transportation options and I hated it because I often had to plan my life around things like bus times.
I have a bunch of other little reasons but really it all boils down to transportation and how living there would affect my life outside of work (getting to my office from many parts of Jersey would be easy). I'll probably look out there when my lease is up since my social life is slowing down a bit but I think because of all my weird transportation/anti-suburban neuroses I might prefer to go back to Queens if I'm priced out of Manhattan and Brooklyn.


-- Edited by cc at 10:54, 2006-05-13

just scanned over this- i know very little about UES or UWS and jersey- but i live in brooklyn and adore it.  it has that peaceful "leaving the city" feeling.  I live in williamsburg, which is sometimes annoyingly "hip", but i love it most of the time.  Park slope and carroll gardens are soo nice as well, and the area by the lorimer/graham avenue stop off the L (east williamsburg-ish- not bushwick) is becoming nice too.  Its like living in the city (walk downstairs to the bakery, pizza on the corner, really nice shops a few blocks away) but not- a lot more chill.  I'm about 30 mins from midtown, carroll gardens/park slope is about 45 mins- less if you time your trains correctly and catch express ones.  Its pricey though- but i DO think you should check it out, even if you end up living elsewhere, just for options maybe in the future =)  i know too many manhattanites who know NOTHING of brooklyn- too bad. 

detroit wrote:

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lynnie - the Brooklyn information was really helpful - it's hard to tell which neighborhoods are better than others. dc also seconded Park Slope. so that's 2 votes for Park Slope...  Oh - and that park that's in flatbush? is that good for running? is it dangerous at all?
 

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Are you asking about Prospect Park? Part of Flatbush Ave runs past Prospect Park, which is lovely and I'm sure it's pretty safe. Flatbush the neighborhood is further south and east of there and I don't know that I would feel comfortable living there.

Also I would vote for Park Slope as well as a lot of the neighborhoods in that part of Brooklyn - Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill etc. - as great places to settle down but if you need something cheap in the interim I think you'd have better luck elsewhere, especially if you want to keep it under $1000 a month. I've seen tons of my friends with budgets of under $1000-1100 apartment hunting in those areas (plus Williamsburg) and all of them had to take shares with roommates if they wanted to be in decent neighborhoods.

I think for a lot of the nice neighborhoods in Brooklyn or Manhattan if you want something for under $1k a month you would either have to take a share or look for sublets by people who have been living there for a long time and therefore have low rents (eg my coworker lives on Ludlow in the Lower East side and his rent is only $700 bc he's been living there for at least 20 years, though it's also a teeny studio on the top floor of a crummy walkup). So it's possible but it could take a lot of legwork.

Also I'm obsessed with this blog which is mainly about buying and renovating brownstones in Brooklyn but it could at least give you an idea of the market and neighborhoods: Brownstoner

-- Edited by cc at 12:08, 2006-05-16