Is anyone else let down by NYC? (New York, Red Hook: real estate, apartment)

[wingpop]

Hi all,

I moved here 3 years ago after wanting to live here since I was 9. Everyone from my town in the Midwest is like, "NY? Do you love it????" Actually, no. It's been a big up and down.

I do give the city props that you can really fulfill any sort of career goal you have here, because the city has so much opportunity. But I'm feeling really let down by what I've found to be the reality of life here. I could rent in Manhattan but on my $43,000 annual salary this wouldn't leave me much to play with. I sublet with some horrible roommates in Sunset Park for 9 months when I first got here and it was awful!!! However, it was all I could find for less than $600 a month.

Now I live with my sister in Astoria but guess what!? We SHARE a one-bedroom apartment. Seriously? At 26 this is what my life is? Granted, I couldn't do it with anyone else but I feel like even those people who make a million a year always need more and more in this city. It's quickly becoming a place for the very wealthy. Since when is a six figure salary ****? Since rent in Tribeca for a 1-bedroom is $3500 a month.

Another disturbing thing I find is that people my age living in Manhattan don't pay their rent-their parents pay it. So me living in Queens is like, "Oh my god!" A lot of them don't even know where Red Hook is. I seriously don't think they have ever been to Queens or Brooklyn, and don't even mention (gasp) the Bronx.

This was just a city of my dreams and now that the dream is reality, it wasn't that dreamy after all. I'm glad I did it but I find myself wishing I lived in NY in the 70's when it was grittier. It's getting more and more homogenous with each passing year.

Thanks for reading. Please share your thoughts, or you can tell me to just stop whining!

[gbarney04]

I was born in Brooklyn, as were my parents, their parents and their parents. My parents moved to Manhattan when we were kids and bought a house in Greenwich, CT for the weekends and eventually moved there for good. However, we always came back to the City on a weekly basis and you're right, NYC used to be much more interesting and a fun place to live in the 70's and 80's. It's now a place only for the rich and has lost it's character, in my opinion. People still want to believe it's such an amazing place to live because that's what they've been told. I wouldn't even want to live here even if I could afford it (I could but it would be a bit tight). I totally understand your frustration. I work in the City but wouldn't want to live here. I enjoy living in a home without nosey neighbors and coop boards bossing me around.

[Henna]

I guess it's good for some and not so good for others. Luckily people in the US are pretty mobile and can pick up and move when they are unhappy. After 3 years here, it seems pretty clear this isn't the place for you. Another good thing is there is a great forum called city-data where you can check out what it might be like in other areas of the country!

[Irish Eyes]

I was born and raised in Brooklyn and yeah, it did used to be more interesting. Brooklyn and Queens were great before people started getting priced out of the city and decided that these were now "acceptable" places to live. I used to love the Village but now it's just, eh. Well the west village is still ok but the whole thing just makes me sad.

[Pete Piper]

Originally Posted by wingpop

This was just a city of my dreams and now that the dream is reality, it wasn't that dreamy after all. I'm glad I did it but I find myself wishing I lived in NY in the 70's when it was grittier. It's getting more and more homogenous with each passing year.

Try the Bronx. It's cheaper, grittier and less homogenous.

Yes, New York is a very different place than it was even ten years ago. There are so many great parts of New York, but so many are out of reach for the regular guy. I'm surprised that it has gotten so desirable. I thought suburbs were truly the american ideal, although they were never my ideal.
I was talking to someone who has a two bedroom apartment on the upper west side that she said is now worth like a million dollars. She said she never imagined she'd be living in a million dollar place. Of course it's the same apartment as when she bought it for 300k. Now it's more exclusive, so I guess it seems more important.

[metropolistraffic]

New York City is so .. surreal.
I live in the suburbs (westchester), and, whenever I visit manhattan. It's just .. crazy. Like. For people to do this every day. I wonder how it's possible. Never have I seen so many people sorta like. fit together like a puzzle. Each and everyone telling a different tale and doing a different thing.
I dunno. I'm always awestruck when I go. And, haha. I want to live there soo badly. XD

Now that i just totally thought deep about manhattan~ ha

[NJ Chutzpah]

NYC still has lots of ethnic enclaves like brighton beach, morris park, ridgewood

And then you have NJ nearby that has not lost its grit. Hudson county is pretty interesting. You have the yuppy areas like downtown JC, and hoboken, and then a Hindu area on Newark Ave, and pinoy places. The rest is hispanics and blacks.

In the next county to the west you have the brazilian neighborhood called the ironbound.

From the ironbound if you go north pass kearny, and onto rt 17 you will be in strip mall country, from there if you head west you will be in the country after about a 1.5 hour drive

You can still get lost in NJ

[Ace Rock]

I agree. But don't tell the people who earn birdseed for pay, live with 5 roommates in a studio, and go on and on about how "NYC is the greatest city in the world!" They'll CRUCIFY you if say NYC sucks.

NYC, and even more so Manhattan, has turned into the place for trust fundies and parentally subsidized twenty-somethings. Everyone else is mostly ghetto or living with 5 roommates.

Thanks to NYC, New York state has the largest gap between the rich and poor, and the 4th largest gap between the rich and middle class:

Harder to handle widening income gap in recession - Apr. 9, 2008

Originally Posted by wingpop

Hi all,

I moved here 3 years ago after wanting to live here since I was 9. Everyone from my town in the Midwest is like, "NY? Do you love it????" Actually, no. It's been a big up and down.

I do give the city props that you can really fulfill any sort of career goal you have here, because the city has so much opportunity. But I'm feeling really let down by what I've found to be the reality of life here. I could rent in Manhattan but on my $43,000 annual salary this wouldn't leave me much to play with. I sublet with some horrible roommates in Sunset Park for 9 months when I first got here and it was awful!!! However, it was all I could find for less than $600 a month.

Now I live with my sister in Astoria but guess what!? We SHARE a one-bedroom apartment. Seriously? At 26 this is what my life is? Granted, I couldn't do it with anyone else but I feel like even those people who make a million a year always need more and more in this city. It's quickly becoming a place for the very wealthy. Since when is a six figure salary ****? Since rent in Tribeca for a 1-bedroom is $3500 a month.

Another disturbing thing I find is that people my age living in Manhattan don't pay their rent-their parents pay it. So me living in Queens is like, "Oh my god!" A lot of them don't even know where Red Hook is. I seriously don't think they have ever been to Queens or Brooklyn, and don't even mention (gasp) the Bronx.

This was just a city of my dreams and now that the dream is reality, it wasn't that dreamy after all. I'm glad I did it but I find myself wishing I lived in NY in the 70's when it was grittier. It's getting more and more homogenous with each passing year.

Thanks for reading. Please share your thoughts, or you can tell me to just stop whining!

[newtoli]

You should be taking home somewhere around $2700/mo, why not find a $1200/mo apartment for yourself? I don't understand why you are looking for an apt under $600.

This was just a city of my dreams and now that the dream is reality, it wasn't that dreamy after all. I'm glad I did it but I find myself wishing I lived in NY in the 70's when it was grittier. It's getting more and more homogenous with each passing year.

Believe me, you wouldn't be saying that if you lived here in the 70's. I remember the city from when I was young in the 80's and it was still a war zone.

[Sgoldie]

I don't know about the 80's and 90's because I stopped going there after I moved in the 70's though I've started back up again. NYC then was a filthy place full of dog doo, graffiti, and litter. It was dangerous to walk down all but the very best streets and people regularly were accompanied by large attack dogs. It might have been colorful but people were afraid to look you in the eye. Everyone stared down at the sidewalk for fear of provoking an attack. It's much better now. If you want something reminiscent try Jersey City it's intriguing without being frightening.

The problem you're finding in NYC isn't necessarily exclusive to there. It's something those starting out in life are finding all over the country. My kids and their friends are paying $2500 and over for two bedroom apts in Boston, Miami, California, DC and all the places where jobs and interesting living circumstances are. None of them as yet are able to afford the starting prices of upwards of a half million in some markets for a condo or a house. It's a combination of competitive demand, higher salaries, inflation, the falling dollar, greed, speculation, and the real estate bubble bandwagon. It also has something to do with the phasing out of rent control which is something particular to NYC. If you looked hard enough you could actually find a not so nice 1 br apt in a decent area of Manhattan w tub in kitchen and tiolet in hall for $25 a month. If I told you that my landlord tried to sell me my entire building (30 apts) not far from Gramercy Pk for $40,000 back then you wouldn't believe me. All those expensive loft buildings that are so popular now were empty above the ground floor and unrenovated for the most part except for a studio here and there.