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I often visit the NYC and DC forums and rent is often a high issue topic. I often hear posts about how if you want to live in a certain area, you would HAVE to pay a certain rate.
I have lived in NYC and have a number of people I know who moved to the DC area. The friends I know in NYC often tell me how competitive the housing is, but they are hard searches and constantly look for openings. Likewise, they always seem to manage a decent apartment in Manhattan for under $1000, which is impossible according to most posters. My friends in DC live in Silver Springs and pay around $450 each.
Now I know there are the exceptions but they always seem to stay in a consistent price range, meaning they always find a decent asking price in high value areas.
Generally I see that rent prices seem extremely high up front, but do you think people often inflate the costs of areas without taking into question obscure but affordable rents?
The possibility of getting a sub-$1000 a month apartment in Manhattan (I can't speak for DC) will generally happen only if the apartment is in pretty bad condition and in an undesirable neighborhood, if the apartment is shared and your friends are talking about splitting the rent for one apartment, or if the apartment is subsidized somehow--NYCHA public housing, social services housing , affordable housing lottery, Mtitchell Lama homes, or something similar to that.
Your chances of getting a decent private-market apartment in a respectable neighborhood for that amount grows --but not by a whole lot -- in some of the furthest reaches of Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, or Staten Island.
You can certainly luck out anywhere and find a cheap apartment. Just don't count on it.
The possibility of getting a sub-$1000 a month apartment in Manhattan (I can't speak for DC) will generally happen only if the apartment is in pretty bad condition and in an undesirable neighborhood, if the apartment is shared and your friends are talking about splitting the rent for one apartment, or if the apartment is subsidized somehow--NYCHA public housing, social services housing , affordable housing lottery, Mtitchell Lama homes, or something similar to that.
Your chances of getting a decent private-market apartment in a respectable neighborhood for that amount grows --but not by a whole lot -- in some of the furthest reaches of Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, or Staten Island.
You can certainly luck out anywhere and find a cheap apartment. Just don't count on it.
The thing is though they did. One found a place on Lexington for around $700 a month while another found one near hell's kitchen for $900.
It might seem lucky but they constantly are able to find affordable places. The apartments are by no means amazing but are suitable for their needs. This leads me to believe if they consistently find them, they must exist on a normal basis.
They do exist, but as citylove said, those apartments often have special conditions and probably aren't true market rate apartments. But then Manhattan's rental market is so skewed especially due to government interference that it's probably hard to determine what's "normal".
An area that otherwise might be affordable could be inflated upwards because an area that has gentrified might have too many apartments with subsidized rents. Since people like to stay put in one neighborhood even when it changes, that puts pressure to spread out demand and price increases. This can happen in other cities, but its currently most pronounced in NYC because of population scales.
The thing is though they did. One found a place on Lexington for around $700 a month while another found one near hell's kitchen for $900.
Are you sure they are not sharing the apartment with roommates, or are not living in a walk-in closet square footage wise, or living right above a Chinese fish market or something? Those can't be market rate rents for "normal" apartments.
I often visit the NYC and DC forums and rent is often a high issue topic. I often hear posts about how if you want to live in a certain area, you would HAVE to pay a certain rate.
I have lived in NYC and have a number of people I know who moved to the DC area. The friends I know in NYC often tell me how competitive the housing is, but they are hard searches and constantly look for openings. Likewise, they always seem to manage a decent apartment in Manhattan for under $1000, which is impossible according to most posters. My friends in DC live in Silver Springs and pay around $450 each.
Now I know there are the exceptions but they always seem to stay in a consistent price range, meaning they always find a decent asking price in high value areas.
Generally I see that rent prices seem extremely high up front, but do you think people often inflate the costs of areas without taking into question obscure but affordable rents?
Are you saying that you know somebody who paid $450 for an apartment in Silver spring or is this person paying $450 as their part of shared housing? There are no apartments for $450 in Silver Spring. Not even sure you can get that rate in the worst parts of Baltimore.
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