Having a hard time finding a place to live. Any Advice? (Newark: apartments, rentals)

[blm650]

Hello. So, I work in Jersey City and currently make $15 an hour base. I need to live very close to my job, because I work on-call with 2 hours notice. Unfortunately, I can't really afford anything nice in JC. I want to live in a visually appealing area, with attractive people and that has lots of restaurants and cafes. Hoboken is crazy expensive! What's in my budget ($800-1200) is in a bad area. This is really frustrating. Maybe I'm being too picky. Thanks for any tips.

[kagamine]

Originally Posted by blm650

Hello. So, I work in Jersey City and currently make $15 an hour base. I need to live very close to my job, because I work on-call with 2 hours notice. Unfortunately, I can't really afford anything nice in JC. I want to live in a visually appealing area, with attractive people and that has lots of restaurants and cafes. Hoboken is crazy expensive! What's in my budget ($800-1200) is in a bad area. This is really frustrating. Maybe I'm being too picky. Thanks for any tips.

$1000 shall get u a okay place in Bayonne.
From there you can take the bus (if u live on west side of bayonne ) or light rail (east side) to JC

forgot to mention, $1000 will be enough for you to get a bedroom of those 2bd or 3bd apartments from the luxury rental buildings in downtown JC -- 90% ppl there are young working professionals commute to NYC w/ PATH who can't afford the entire apartment but share rooms with others.

same for room sharing, $1k is good for a decent bedroom from those illegal rentals in the town houses at Grove ST (usually Asian landlords). Comparing with the boring downtown JC, Grove ST has great restaurants and bars and night life.

another choice is journal square, when I lived there several years ago I was able to find a decent 1 bedroom apartment blocks away from PATH for $975 -- the rent raised to $1100 at the time I moved out tho

[madbach]

I recommend getting a roommate, rents are very high in that area and on $15 an hour I'm afraid you simply can't afford it.

[RobRiguez]

If you have a car you could look just about anywhere along Rt1 south of Newark. Elizabeth, Linden, Avenel, Woodbridge, Fords, even Edison is only 45 min away. The closer you get to Edison, the harder it will be to find something affordable.