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Comment by palencharizard | Hacker News Reader

NYC!

Pros: Limitless number of things to do, people to meet, communities to be a part of. And Broadway (for me). I also enjoy not needing a car.

Cons: Yes it's expensive. Apartments are a choice between: good location, good size, good price (choose two). More shit seems to be going down in the subway (sometimes the literal kind).

Also, there's a kind of art to apartment hunting in NYC. Once you master it, finding an apartment isn't that bad. I've always gotten a pretty good deal and always had a choice between a few apartments. Staying away from trendier neighborhoods is my first rule (way overpriced.. and this is what most ppl see first before digging deeper). I guess the second rule is know thyself - knowing what annoyances you can tolerate will help you find the types of housing that'll conceivably work for you.

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The last sentence is extremely true and good advice.

In general, "the market" is extremely efficient: all "bona fide good" (i.e. you, your mother, your 5 closest friends, your manager, your college roommate would unanimously agree that it's "good") living situations are really expensive.

To find situations that are affordable, you have to trade off on a couple of those bona fides (dishwasher, W/D access, square footage, daytime/nighttime noise, distance from trendy neighborhoods... ambient incidence rate of violent crime).

All that being said, if I were new to the city and under 30, I wouldn't discount bunking up with randos in LES/East Village/Nolita (trendier neighborhoods) for the first year. You're not going to know which neighborhood is your neighborhood until you've seen what's around, and you might as well enjoy the first year. Will you be financially responsible? Eventually. For now, have a good time.

The last part to the NYC apartment hunt: be ready to execute. Sometimes being the first party to engage on the spot is what it takes.

Reminds me of the chapter on Optimal Stopping in the book Algorithms To Live By.

Last time I looked I had a check ready to sign and fill with the proper info.

Totally. I get bank statements, paychecks and living history ready when I go into apartment hunting mode. I transfer around $4-5K to my checking account to be ready to get a bank check in a 24-hr turnaround period.

Optimal Stopping alone makes Algorithms to Live By worth the read

Agreed. Great book. Glad you enjoyed it.

> Also, there's a kind of art to apartment hunting in NYC. Once you master it, finding an apartment isn't that bad.

Please elaborate beyond avoiding trendier neighborhoods.

> Staying away from trendier neighborhoods is my first rule (way overpriced.. and this is what most ppl see first before digging deeper)

Where have you looked?

Some places I've looked in the past: Crown Heights & Prospect Heights, Flatbush-Ditmars, Prospect-Leffert, Astoria, Sunnyside, Financial District, Ridgewood, Bushwick, "East Williamsburg", LIC, Harlem, Hell's Kitchen, Lower East side (sometimes, though it's also getting some of the most overpriced apartments in the city for what you get).

Interesting. And where are the trendier neighborhoods you'd avoid?

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