Cost of Living in Edison NJ (New Brunswick, Perth Amboy: apartments, rental, crime)

[jitterbuggy]

I'm a recent grad who accepted a job for 35 k in Edison, NJ. Will this be enough to live on if I am looking to live by myself or with a roommate in Edison (or around Edison)? Does anyone know what the cost of living would be here?

[BobKovacs]

Having a room mate will make it easier, without a doubt. Rent for a decent apartment will be close to $1,000/month, and then you'll add utilities, food, gas, car note/credit card payments if you have them, etc. It won't be easy on $35k unless you're pretty frugal, IMO.

[HubCityMadMan]

Yes for $35K you will need a roommate. Most apartments in this area are close to $1,000 a month. You want to try to make in a week what you will be paying in a month, so you can at least have some savings.

[jitterbuggy]

Are there places to live that are cheaper in NJ other than Edison?

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by jitterbuggy

Are there places to live that are cheaper in NJ other than Edison?

Sure, but the overall desirability of a locale is the market force that drives prices:

If you are willing to move to a very rural location and travel further to work, that might get you a lower rent, but ultimately you will eat up the rent savings (and more) with higher gasoline and car maintenance expenses (and possibly, tolls). How far are you willing to travel?

Or, you could look at areas with a higher crime rate, as they tend to have lower rental costs in many cases. If you want to rent fairly close to Edison, you might want to look in Perth Amboy or New Brunswick, as the rents there will be a bit lower. The trade-off, however, is a higher crime rate.

[sissy77]

You can check the apartment listing sight for the middlesex county area they have all the listings and a rating on the apartments prices ,safety ,parking .The local newspaper gives you a lot of them on sundays also .You can try North Brunswick area they are safer cheaper apartments a long route 1 >I lived in Edison for a long time and have friends who live in Blueberry Village apartments .Just type on the internet for apartment listings for middlesex county and it will give you the info .You can also check by just typing in Middlesex County and they have listings with the cost of rents .

[jitterbuggy]

Thanks everyone. I'm mostly worried about cost + safety. I'll look into north brunswick.