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My Daughter Molly is hoofing around the City looking for an apartment this week, but without a laptop, so she asked me to post a few questions regarding apartments in or near Hoboken. She is 23, single, college grad, straight and with a boyfriend in Buffalo, just took a producer job in midtown Manhattan, not making much money to start. She has no pets, is a nonsmoker, no drugs, wants an apartment near PATH in Hoboken, NJ for easy commute to midtown. Can afford $1000/month so a roommate is fine (if necessary). Priorities would be safety for walking, affordability, proximity to PATH (won’t have her car there), people her age in the neighborhood, nightlife. I’ll be coming there tomorrow (Sat 28th Aug) and helping her look around for 3-4 days. Can anybody help her find a place to live?
budget will be tough but, you can be anywhere in town and have a 15 minute or less walk to the path. or, you could live in north hoboken, or further west of the path, and the Port Authority Bus up Clinton St may be an easier (and more comfortable) commute.
bus is something like $2.25each or around $2.10 in bulk - but rates may have recently went up, path works out to $1.30 when purchased in bulk.
depending on where in midtown she is going, it's about a 45-55 minute commute, door to door.
$1,000 will be tough for a studio or 1 bedroom. but possible, in an older smaller brownstown. if she looks in the elevator buildings or remodeled apartments, i think you'd be looking at $1500-$2000 for a 1bdr. which is where posting an ad on craigslist for a roomate comes in handy! a 2 bedroom goes up only a few hundred dollars (but then is split between 2 people!)
not having/needing a car keeps her open because you don't have to look in buildings with parking spaces that add $150-$200 per month onto rent.
hoboken is fairly safe all over, but as a young woman, i'd avoid living close to 4th and jackson. it's fine during the day, but it is near low income housing and is rough at night with a reasonable amount of robberies.
but - i lived on 1st and jefferson and there were a few instances where people got robbed on the street. i don't recall anything violent happening in 5 years there. so if you're walking around at night, be in a crowd, stay on well lit streets, and don't carry anything too insanely valuable - that way if you get approached, you just hand your wallet and no big loss. don't mean to scare you with that statement though - i literally can count on my hand how many times i read these occurances happening in all of hoboken in my 5 years there.
my wife moved out and lived with me (wasn't wife at that time) and she was comfortable all the time.
i have friends on 2nd and Adams, and she walks home all the time.
your daughter will love hoboken. easy access to city, and a bit quieter than living there. city life without some of the big pains of city life.
oh - and just some personal advice - meet the upstairs neighbors if possible. i lived below a rabbi and his wife with 6 kids. not fun! especially when he would host dinner on the sabboth for a couple dozen people.
Just saw the list of questions:
Molly is coming from NC and will be working midtown Manhattan.
She will be renting and $1000/mo is her budget.
No spouse, pets or kids. Schools unimportant.
She wants a safe neighborhood, makes friends easily, wants to be around people her age or a little older (25-28).
List three things that are important to you in order of importance: safety, commute to midtown Manhattan, walking distance to PATH in Hoboken, nightlife.
Any help out there?
Mack, being a new member on CD, had posted this info in another thread.Just trying to put it all together here, and bump this on top of the other thread, which had no replies other than my own.Hopefully, someone out there can provide some more ideas.
She will DEFINITELY need a roommate if working with only $1000/mo. Is she looking for a 2BR then if she has a roommate? Generally speaking, as you get closer to the PATH and the waterfront the more expensive apartments become...and Hoboken is pretty expensive to begin with.
Take a look at Craiglist ads for NJ on apartments in Hoboken. View google maps for proximity to the PATH station of apartments you find. Sometimes people will advertise that the apartment is close to the PATH when it is in fact like 10 blocks away.
Tks bradykp. I guess we'll drive up there (7 hrs from NC) tomorrow morning and spend Mon-Wed with her driving around looking for apartments/roommates and reading local papers' classifieds for leads. She is looking on Craigslist too.
Do people still advertise rooms for rent in houses using signs in yards? How do apartment buildings advertise vacant apartments? And other than Craigslist, how does she find a roommate (bulletin boards? where?) and how does she ensure she is not rooming with a serial killer (can you tell I'm the worried Dad?)?
Do people still advertise rooms for rent in houses using signs in yards? How do apartment buildings advertise vacant apartments?
From the areas I've seen, I don't believe there are really any "yards" in Hoboken. Most are large connected brownstones. Many of them DO post vacancy notices and prices on their ground-floor windows/doors ... or at least they did several years agao when I used to visit.
I moved to Hoboken at her age (7 years ago). I lived at 1st and Jefferson as the above poster mentioned and came home late at night and never had any problems. My apt was 800$ studio & if you folded my futon out it took up the entire "living" room. So 1k will be a little tough w/ out a roommate but plenty w/. I would recommend not going any further back than Jefferson street though. And definitely consider not being near the path for economical reasons. There are buses and the light rail to help you. Its not as convenient but there are only so many apartments close to the path & they do tend to cost more.
She's talking to potential roommates from Craigslist and roommate.com. THANKS VERY MUCH for the info!
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How safe is walking near the PATH station in Hoboken?
And I think we all understand.
