We left NYC in 2012 due to layoffs, but getting an apartment back then was incredibly difficult. I don’t think people who live in other areas of the US would understand it (except maybe SF folks). Competition for apartments is fierce, and pricing was through the roof even then. We lived in Manhattan for 9 years and then got priced out. A brief move to Sunset park, then further out to Bay Ridge. Bay Ridge was reasonable and not too hard to find a place, but it is an hour from Manhattan via subway.

The situation seems to be much, much worse now 12 years later from what I have read.