We all hear the cliché that rent in New York City is ridiculously high, and in many cases that’s true. Typical one-bedroom apartments in the Big Apple have consistently ranked as some of, if not the most, expensive nationally despite a recent fall off.
If you’re looking for a place to rent in the city, be prepared for a $3,500-$4,000 financial hit a month. Not everybody has that kind of money, let alone that kind of money to use on rent alone, so let’s say you only had about a third of that sum. What can $1,000 a month get you?
To my surprise, it can get you a decent deal. The Internet, obviously, is a tremendous tool to search for those apartments that go for under $1,000, and there are plenty of places to do some searching. Granted, apartments this cheap are few and far between, but they’re there. Take the list on Rentable that only showed nine NYC apartments going for at or below $1K a month right now. They’re as follows:
- 89 Kingston Ave: four-bedroom, approximately $1000 a room
- 1110 Halsey St: four-bedroom, approximately $925 a room
- 1127 Lafayette Ave: four-bedroom, approximately $975 a room
- 791 Onderdonk Ave: four-bedroom, approximately $1,000 a room
- 60 New York Ave: four-bedroom, approximately $900 a room
- 6601 Park Avenue West: one-bedroom, approximately $900 for the room
- 2918 Frederick Douglass Blvd: one-bedroom, approximately $1000 for the room
- 157 West 72nd St: two-bedroom, approximately $1000 a room
- 40 East 52nd St: two-bedroom, approximately $180 a room
Lists on ApartmentGuide, Zillow, Redfin and Rent.com offer similar deals across the boroughs (and some in New Jersey with easy commutes, but those don’t exactly count, as they are not in NYC). As one would expect, some of the apartments are double-listed on different sites (like the Onderdonk one, for example). If you’re really interested, check the lists out.
I can’t offer a perfectly objective assessment, but there is variety in location and style for sure. Some are in buildings, others in more house-like structures. Some are obviously a little spacier than others, but plenty are equipped with a bed, a bath, and a kitchen. Most of these aren’t in Midtown Manhattan, but the prices are obviously reasonable, and a place in Brooklyn or Queens is never a bad thing. A lot of them lack ratings or have poor ones, though. But the listings are nonetheless there.
Usually, from what I’ve been able to gather, apartments that meet the price requirement are either a cheap one-bedroom or a cheap room in a four-bedroom unit. Really, most multi-bedroom apartments in New York City offer cheap rates per bedroom. If you and some friends want to make it easier on everyone, renting as a group is likely the most universally sound option, and in many cases, there are a lot of apartments where you can do that if you expand the scope of this search to $1,500-$2000. But if you’re going solo, the options are limited and arguably lower quality.
The bottom line here is that if you absolutely want to rent in New York City for $1,000 a month or less, it is far from impossible. There are a few places you can even rent for $900 or less (like 40 Cottage St, for approximately $865 a month). From my count, there are at least 20 apartments in the city where that’s doable. It can get you a typical one-bed and one-bathroom apartment, nothing flashy unless you pool your money with some roommates.
The average rent for average real estate is high for a reason, but don’t be afraid to seek out something off the beaten path. It’s a quick Google search away.
