Finding apartment via craigslist? (New York, Ridge: for rent, neighborhoods, utilities)

[Syfer1324]

Hello everyone, I am curently in New York state and want to move into the city in hopes of finding a job and living on my own while pursuing the career I've always wanted. I don't expect rent to be cheap, but I don't think I can quite afford 1,200 a month. I've looked around craigslist and saw rooms that cost about $800/mo and $200/week. Has anyone ever had experience with offers like this? I've seen a couple of these and from what I understand it seems to be under market pricing. Is it possible to rent a private bedroom in NYC for $800 as long as you stay out of Manhattan?

Some of the ones I found recently:

Brooklyn Rental,Crown hts
Room for rent 200$ a week
http://brooklynbedrooms.com/

[fmatthew5876]

For $800/mo you can rent a room with roomates in a lot of places in the outer boroughs and upper manhattan. Renting with roomates will also reduce your utilities. If you want your own apartment, I haven't even seen studios in the Bronx for this price (cheapest I saw last summer was $850 around concourse).

[Syfer1324]

Originally Posted by fmatthew5876

For $800/mo you can rent a room with roomates in a lot of places in the outer boroughs and upper manhattan. Renting with roomates will also reduce your utilities. If you want your own apartment, I haven't even seen studios in the Bronx for this price (cheapest I saw last summer was $850 around concourse).

Roommates are fine, I already figured I'd be stuck with one on my budget. Didn't know NYC could get so cheap, time to make some phone calls

[texan2yankee]

I never found Craigslist to be helpful for finding an apartment. Know where you want to live, prices, amenities, and what type of building you want. Finding an apartment is mostly price followed by luck.

[Henna]

Originally Posted by fmatthew5876

For $800/mo you can rent a room with roomates in a lot of places in the outer boroughs and upper manhattan.

Agreed.

I would also add that it makes sense to concentrate in middle income/working class areas that are not going through massive waves of gentrification. Some areas that come to mind are Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst or Midwood in Brooklyn or Woodside or Rego Park in Queens.

The idea would be to find a solid good value neighborhood that has good subway access and amenities, and is safe.

I don't know the Bronx well but there have been threads on here where you could find the names of some neighborhoods there as well.