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I'm sure you get this a lot, but I'm considering moving to NYC.
I've been reading up on it as much as possible and threads from this forum keep coming up. So I've decided to post my own situation here to see if I can gather as much information as possible specific to my situation.
So here goes:
I currently live in WNY, about 8 hours from NYC. I have a fiance, whom I will be married to by the time we would be moving, and a child who will be at least around a year old. My fiance and I are both currently students working on associates degrees, and I would like to pursue a bachelors degree in NYC. My major is digital media, at the moment my concentration is web design. I'm interested in video game design, animation/cartooning, graphic design, and naturally web design. From what I know, NYC has at least a decent job market for these things, though not too many big game companies are there. Our ideal moving time would be in a little over half a year, between December 2013-January 2014, by which time we should have around $10,000 saved up. Potentially the biggest problem with the move is that, as far as we can see, neither of us will have a job lined up in NYC by the time we want to move. From what I gather, most landlords require proof of income, so this might be a problem. We do both get financial aid for school, enough to amount to about $20,000 a year, though I'm not sure that this can be counted as income. One or both of us would begin job searching immediately upon moving, on top of the financial aid money.
We also may or may not be moving with a roommate, but if we moved with a roommate we'd need at least a 2-bedroom, so I'm not sure if that would even be better financially for us.
So now the main things I'm wondering about:
-Are there apartments in NYC for less than $1200 a month? (I've found apartments listed for between $1000-1100/month online but it seems like most people on forums like these say it's unusual to find one below $1500)
-or even less than $1500?
-Are there cheap areas that aren't too dangerous? (Basically, places where you can walk down the street without being afraid of potential violent crimes or robbery)
-Are there apartments in NYC that one can rent without proof of income?
-if so, how would someone not living in the city go about finding these apartments?
-How much does heating/electricity typically cost in NYC apartments?
-Would $40,000-50,000 a year be enough to live in NYC with a child? (for rent, basic utilities, basic living expenses, and at least a little extra for the child)
-if so, would it be enough to build up ANY savings over time?
Any other information/advice anyone wants to give based on our situation would be appreciated as well.
First thing is first. If you really want to move to NYC, I would recommend you save up a lot more than 10K before moving here. You have to realize, that even with a $1200 apartment, you would be spending $2400 on the first month alone, thanks to the security deposit. And that's not even counting the brokers fee. Now, since you don't have a steady income, the only way you would get an apartment is if you pay the first 3 to 6 moths of rent upfront (unless you get a co-signer who can back you.) Almost all of your savings would be gone right there. Save up at least 20k before you consider moving.
Now that that's out of the way, with the limits you set on your rent forget about living in any of the trendy neighborhoods of NYC. Most posters on this board will tell you that you can't afford anything with $1200/month. They would be wrong, because as you will come to find out, the members on this board tend to only be familiar with the more expensive neighborhoods and anyone not living in those neighborhoods is living in squalor in their opinion.
That being said, there are decent and safe residential neighborhoods with 1bdrs for 1200/1300, however they tend to be far from Manhattan or lack transportation and other amenities like great restaurants, bars, gyms, etc., etc... Now if none of this is problem for you, then you can consider looking into some areas of Queens, or the Northern Bronx. I would recommend you look into parts Jackson Heights, Woodside, Sunnyside, and East Elmhurst (south of Astoria Blvd. only,) or Fresh Meadows if you want more space. There other posters more familiar with the other boroughs that can give you options in Brooklyn or the Bronx.
Now your electric bill will be around $50/$60, and your transportation costs will run you about $200 a month, assuming the two of you use no more than $25 worth of metrocards a week, each. Your food expenses will easily be $350 plus a month, considering your baby. With other basic living expenses, you're easily looking at another $1000 a month on of your rent. That's $2200 a month or $26400 a year. With an income of 40/50K, you can make it work, but you'll be cutting it awfully tight and you'll have no money for a social life or saving. You'll be lucky if you can save 5k a year.
Okay, now that I've discussed financials, maybe it's time for a reality check. I don't want to sound harsh, but have you really thought this through? If the two of you will be studying, how are on earth are you planing on making 40K+ between the two of you? Who will raise your child? Can you afford to pay for a babysitter? If you really want to move to NYC, and you plan on bringing your family with you then I suggest either you both wait until one of you has a secure job with decent pay lined up, or you make the trek down by yourself first. Rent yourself a small room, go to school, and work on getting a decent job lined up for yourself before you bring your family down. I'm not going to tell you not to move to NYC, many people people in situations similar to yourself move to NYC all the time and make it work, but it may not be what's best for your family. Just think very carefully about what you're trying to do before you make any life changing moves.
Last edited by Astorian31; 05-13-2013 at 07:01 PM..
Lifelong New Yorker here and lived in 4 of the 5 boroughs, I totally agree with Astorian31. Another place to look is across the river in New Jersey. Look for places along Park ave in NJ and Boulevard East with easy commute into mid town.
That being said, there are decent and safe residential neighborhoods with 1bdrs for 1200/1300, however they tend to be far from Manhattan or lack transportation and other amenities like great restaurants, bars, gyms, etc., etc... Now if none of this is problem for you, then you can consider looking into some areas of Queens, or the Northern Bronx. I would recommend you look into parts Jackson Heights, Woodside, Sunnyside, and East Elmhurst (south of Astoria Blvd. only,) or Fresh Meadows if you want more space. There other posters more familiar with the other boroughs that can give you options in Brooklyn or the Bronx.
In Western Queens in the neighborhoods that have excellent subway access to the 7 and E/F/R/M lines (Woodside, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst), the one bedrooms are going to start around $1450, and that is for the lower end apartments. Upper range for the nicest, largest one bedrooms will be closer to the $2000 range, though I am not sure they go that high in Elmhurst. Studios in these neighborhoods are around $1100 to $1400. I am talking about apartments in rental buildings, not walk-in apartments in houses, which should be somewhat less.
If I had $1200 per month to spend for a one bedroom and wanted to live in this general vicinity in Queens, I would look at reasonable neighborhoods that don't have good subway transit ("two-fare zones") such as Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, East Elmhurst, and the parts of Rego Park and Elmhurst that are not near subways.
If you go further out in Queens, there are plenty of transit-challenged reasonably priced neighborhoods.
If I were a newcomer in town and didn't have an existing job, social network, etc. in any specific location and wanted a $1200 one bedroom, I would most likely look into the Bronx neighborhoods that are being recommended on here that have good subway access. I would also look into neighborhoods in Brooklyn that are sufficiently far from Manhattan that the rent prices are reduced (but still have good subway access). It seems like a real pain to have to take a bus to the subway but I guess people do it every day.
I'm sure you get this a lot, but I'm considering moving to NYC.
I've been reading up on it as much as possible and threads from this forum keep coming up. So I've decided to post my own situation here to see if I can gather as much information as possible specific to my situation.
Any other information/advice anyone wants to give based on our situation would be appreciated as well.
You should reconsider from multiple reasons:
1) You can’t really afford it,
2) You’re still in school, and
3) You have a small child.
All of these points are discussed in other “Moving to New York” threads.
What’s more, I encourage you to look at the education and employment boards on this site as well. Your career choice of “video game design, animation/cartooning, graphic design, and … web design” is also problematic. It’s a low-paying and ultra competitive industry. To get anywhere you’re going to have to intern for at least a year and you’re going to be up against people from the top schools in the country.
I don’t mean to be a snob, but you’re going to have a very hard time competing with someone from Pratt, RISD or CalArts. People from all over the world want to live in New York and have a hip, creative job in design or digital media.
I suggest (1) doing more research and consider the true job prospects for your career choice (not only jobs in general, but the specific jobs for graduates of your school), (2) finishing your degree outside of the city, (3) move in a few years with more savings.
You might want to consider a school like SUNY Purchase, which is close to the city and known for its media programs. The cost of living in White Plains is far cheaper.
First thing is first. If you really want to move to NYC, I would recommend you save up a lot more than 10K before moving here. You have to realize, that even with a $1200 apartment, you would be spending $2400 on the first month alone, thanks to the security deposit. And that's not even counting the brokers fee. Now, since you don't have a steady income, the only way you would get an apartment is if you pay the first 3 to 6 moths of rent upfront (unless you get a co-signer who can back you.) Almost all of your savings would be gone right there. Save up at least 20k before you consider moving.
That's good to know. Our timeframe is flexible, and the longer we wait to move the more money we'll have so this most likely means we'll simply have to wait longer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astorian31
Now that that's out of the way, with the limits you set on your rent forget about living in any of the trendy neighborhoods of NYC. Most posters on this board will tell you that you can't afford anything with $1200/month. They would be wrong, because as you will come to find out, the members on this board tend to only be familiar with the more expensive neighborhoods and anyone not living in those neighborhoods is living in squalor in their opinion.
Trendy isn't at all important, as long as it's affordable and livable, and relatively safe.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astorian31
That being said, there are decent and safe residential neighborhoods with 1bdrs for 1200/1300, however they tend to be far from Manhattan or lack transportation and other amenities like great restaurants, bars, gyms, etc., etc... Now if none of this is problem for you, then you can consider looking into some areas of Queens, or the Northern Bronx. I would recommend you look into parts Jackson Heights, Woodside, Sunnyside, and East Elmhurst (south of Astoria Blvd. only,) or Fresh Meadows if you want more space. There other posters more familiar with the other boroughs that can give you options in Brooklyn or the Bronx.
None of that is a problem, and thank you for the suggestions. We've still got some decision-making to do, but I'll definitely look into these places if/when we move forward with plans to move.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astorian31
Now your electric bill will be around $50/$60, and your transportation costs will run you about $200 a month, assuming the two of you use no more than $25 worth of metrocards a week, each. Your food expenses will easily be $350 plus a month, considering your baby. With other basic living expenses, you're easily looking at another $1000 a month on of your rent. That's $2200 a month or $26400 a year. With an income of 40/50K, you can make it work, but you'll be cutting it awfully tight and you'll have no money for a social life or saving. You'll be lucky if you can save 5k a year.
$200 a month for transportation seems about right, I think the unlimited month passes are listed online at a little over $100, though my fiance currently takes online courses and might not need to commute as often as I would. Food expenses seems about the same as here. I'm not sure how $40-50k is cutting it tight with only $26400 spent on rent and basic living expenses, though. That's at least $13600 a year, or $1133 a month, left over for anything extra and/or savings. Here we usually spend next to nothing on extra things, and when we do we typically don't go above $200 in any given month. We don't really spend a lot of money on extra things.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Astorian31
Okay, now that I've discussed financials, maybe it's time for a reality check. I don't want to sound harsh, but have you really thought this through? If the two of you will be studying, how are on earth are you planing on making 40K+ between the two of you? Who will raise your child? Can you afford to pay for a babysitter? If you really want to move to NYC, and you plan on bringing your family with you then I suggest either you both wait until one of you has a secure job with decent pay lined up, or you make the trek down by yourself first. Rent yourself a small room, go to school, and work on getting a decent job lined up for yourself before you bring your family down. I'm not going to tell you not to move to NYC, many people people in situations similar to yourself move to NYC all the time and make it work, but it may not be what's best for your family. Just think very carefully about what you're trying to do before you make any life changing moves.
Don't worry, you don't sound harsh. I understand that this is a big life-changing decision, and that's why I'm trying to gather as much information as possible. We're not going to just jump into this without being realistically prepared, so if we have to wait, we're going to wait. The decision to move to New York City specifically isn't even necessarily set in stone, it's just one of the closest big cities to us and the one we settled on ideally moving to. It's also the one I've had my heart set on for a while now.
The $40k estimate was for what I estimate to be making in a career after college, so I wanted to know if NYC would be financially feasible in the long run for us based on that.
And while both of us are students, my fiance's classes are online, so she is able to stay home with our child.
Moving to NYC by myself first isn't really an option, I'm not going to leave my family behind for months to years while I finish school and get a job, so if there ends up being no realistic way of accomplishing this as a family then we'll either wait until we have more savings and/or a more established job/career, or change plans.
Thank you for the response, by the way, it was very helpful.
1) You can’t really afford it,
2) You’re still in school, and
3) You have a small child.
All of these points are discussed in other “Moving to New York” threads.
What’s more, I encourage you to look at the education and employment boards on this site as well. Your career choice of “video game design, animation/cartooning, graphic design, and … web design” is also problematic. It’s a low-paying and ultra competitive industry. To get anywhere you’re going to have to intern for at least a year and you’re going to be up against people from the top schools in the country.
I don’t mean to be a snob, but you’re going to have a very hard time competing with someone from Pratt, RISD or CalArts. People from all over the world want to live in New York and have a hip, creative job in design or digital media.
I suggest (1) doing more research and consider the true job prospects for your career choice (not only jobs in general, but the specific jobs for graduates of your school), (2) finishing your degree outside of the city, (3) move in a few years with more savings.
You might want to consider a school like SUNY Purchase, which is close to the city and known for its media programs. The cost of living in White Plains is far cheaper.
Low-paying? I've looked into video game design quite a bit and from what I learned, the average starting salary of a game designer is typically around $40,000. Based on what I know, the average salary for web designers is around $40-50k as well. I'm not sure about graphic design and cartooning, as I've not really researched those.
Also, I was under the impression that a portfolio is generally more important than where your degree is from in most creative fields. Which, of course, does make it competitive, but has little to do with the schools.
I just did a brief search for apartments in White Plains and the rent there seems as high as, if not higher than, NYC rent. If the rent is still just as high, I'm not sure why it'd be more worthwhile to go there than to simply go to the city.
And I will definitely look at the education and employment boards here, thank you for the suggestion.
Are there any specific threads you'd suggest for me?
In Western Queens in the neighborhoods that have excellent subway access to the 7 and E/F/R/M lines (Woodside, Sunnyside, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst), the one bedrooms are going to start around $1450, and that is for the lower end apartments. Upper range for the nicest, largest one bedrooms will be closer to the $2000 range, though I am not sure they go that high in Elmhurst. Studios in these neighborhoods are around $1100 to $1400. I am talking about apartments in rental buildings, not walk-in apartments in houses, which should be somewhat less.
If I had $1200 per month to spend for a one bedroom and wanted to live in this general vicinity in Queens, I would look at reasonable neighborhoods that don't have good subway transit ("two-fare zones") such as Glendale, Middle Village, Maspeth, East Elmhurst, and the parts of Rego Park and Elmhurst that are not near subways.
If you go further out in Queens, there are plenty of transit-challenged reasonably priced neighborhoods.
If I were a newcomer in town and didn't have an existing job, social network, etc. in any specific location and wanted a $1200 one bedroom, I would most likely look into the Bronx neighborhoods that are being recommended on here that have good subway access. I would also look into neighborhoods in Brooklyn that are sufficiently far from Manhattan that the rent prices are reduced (but still have good subway access). It seems like a real pain to have to take a bus to the subway but I guess people do it every day.
Woodside, SunnySide and Jackson heights are huge, if you recall I mentioned being far for transport usually means cheaper rents. There are nice parts of those areas, which are far from the trains where the OP can find something his price point, like Jackson heights by Northen Blvd. I suggested those areas to the OP, because even though he would have to take an apartment far from the train, he'd still have an easier commute than from places like Maspeth. However, it's good that you mentioned other neighborhoods. If the OP is seriously considering moving to NY, he needs to check out all his available options.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Valentorg
That's good to know. Our timeframe is flexible, and the longer we wait to move the more money we'll have so this most likely means we'll simply have to wait longer.
$200 a month for transportation seems about right, I think the unlimited month passes are listed online at a little over $100, though my fiance currently takes online courses and might not need to commute as often as I would. Food expenses seems about the same as here. I'm not sure how $40-50k is cutting it tight with only $26400 spent on rent and basic living expenses, though. That's at least $13600 a year, or $1133 a month, left over for anything extra and/or savings. Here we usually spend next to nothing on extra things, and when we do we typically don't go above $200 in any given month. We don't really spend a lot of money on extra things.
Thank you for the response, by the way, it was very helpful.
Remember, I only suggested 20k as the BARE minimum. The more you have saved up the better.
40k-50k income is cutting it close because you aren't taking into account taxes and health insurance that comes out of your pay check. That 40K-50K is really closer to 30K in net income.
I am glad to have been of help, and I hope everything works out for you.
Low-paying? I've looked into video game design quite a bit and from what I learned, the average starting salary of a game designer is typically around $40,000. Based on what I know, the average salary for web designers is around $40-50k as well. I'm not sure about graphic design and cartooning, as I've not really researched those.
Also, I was under the impression that a portfolio is generally more important than where your degree is from in most creative fields. Which, of course, does make it competitive, but has little to do with the schools.
Even if you can get it, $40,000 is not a lot of money in the city if you’re raising a child. If rent is 40 times income, that’s only $1,000. I don’t know where you can find a one-bedroom (much less two) for that price that’s not super sketchy. New Yorkers in creative industries tend to have children late because it takes years to get established.
Having a creative job in New York is a dream life for many people, myself included. It’s especially attractive to the children of affluent families who go to expensive schools and have money to intern, etc. It’s not just about talent; it’s also contacts and networking.
If you really want to work in the industry, particularly video games, you might be better off in a place like Austin or California.
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