Possibly moving to NYC -- Advice?

[Chrisman886]

I may be moving from San Diego to NYC sometime in the next 6 months. I've never lived anywhere else before so this will obviously be a big change for me. I was just looking for any advice relating to living in the city, looking for apartments/condos/etc, or any general advice anyone thinks would be useful. If I do move there I will be working at an office in the financial district so I suppose I will probably want a place in Manhattan? Should I sell my car? Any advice would be appreciated.

[ElliotR]

[ QUOTE ]
I may be moving from San Diego to NYC sometime in the next 6 months.

[/ QUOTE ]

As a nyer, i can safely say that you are out of your mind.

[gamblore99]

have you ever been to new york before?
I went for a weekend and decided I never want to live there.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I may be moving from San Diego to NYC sometime in the next 6 months.

[/ QUOTE ]

As a nyer, i can safely say that you are out of your mind.

[/ QUOTE ]
This is a pretty shortsighted opinion. I don't think he's going to be all that surprised to find out it's colder here.

[Evan]

OP,

That is a pretty open-ended post. You can live in Manhattan....or you could save money and live in Jersey or Brooklyn, in which case you might not want to sell your car. You should just come here and look around for yourself. See what you like and figure out where you want to live.


Try reading curbed, too: http://www.curbed.com/

[Maulik]

Spend a year in Manhattan and have fun. If you later decide you're spending too much $ then, to the boroughs. No one wants to get on the train for thirty mins on a Friday night to go out.

[Maulik]

Sell your car, it costs ~$1k to ship it cross-country. That $ is better spent on a beater, having something nice in NYC isn't worth the burden.

[z28dreams]

I don't know NY at all, but several people that live up there have told me that Brooklyn is becoming much more trendy with a lot to do...

Might be a reasonable option if it is in fact cheaper than Manhattan.

[arbitrary]

Don't worry about what others say about NY. It takes a certain type of person to live in Manhattan, and the only way to find out if that's you is to try.

As for housing... How good is the job you are after? If it is an entry-level thing (say under $75k/yr), then you probably best served by trying to get a roommate and split a decent place rather than live in a box. No matter what you do, dedicate some serious time to looking for a place. You're going to have to look at a lot of crappy apartments before finding a good one. If you like a place, and the price is decent, you pretty much have to take it that day, since they move really fast.
Neighborhoods - if you are working in the financial district, the upper east side (low 60s through high 80s) is nice and will get you to work in about 15 mins. If you're more into going out every night, live in the village.

If your time is more important than money, just pay a broker. They'll only show you the better buildings and most of the those buildings have exclusive deals with brokers anyway. The fee will be about a month's rent (ballpark 2k), but if you get the place you really want, instead of some crapheap, it's worth it. Don't even consider craigslist unless price is your only concern. The fair housing act's provisions aren't applied there, and about 98% of all ads are materially misleading.

Car - live in Manhattan, sell (will cost at least $250/mo to park); live in Brooklyn or Jersey - keep.

If you get the choice of when to move, stay in San Diego until winter is over. No need to start with the bad part.

Hope this helps,

==arbitrary

[fslexcduck]

brooklyn is sweeeet. i live here and it's awesome. takes 15 min to get to downtown manhattan on the subway but i spend a ton of my weekend time in brooklyn anyways. and i got 1400 sq feet, btches