Not OP, but you can expect to start at about $1500 a month for a studio apartment (maybe cheaper if you find a damn good deal). If you want a one bedroom, $2000/month is probably closer.
I'm not a New Yorker but I'm having a very hard time believing this. Poking around online I get the strong sense any non-roommate living space at all in Manhattan is going to be very well over $2000.
I don't like the NYC real estate market, personally it's the reason I'm most likely to leave. But I've found great places and friends of mine have found great places; places many of the other commenters say don't exist, and I found these through friends and friends of friends. The longer I've been here, the easier it has come to find places I like that I can afford because I'm not relying on points of entry most likely to be scams or misleading.
I have absolutely no idea how I'd go about finding a $1500 studio anywhere in Manhattan south of 96th street, much less in the 20s. Maybe you can find an illegal apartment in a basement with a hot plate instead of a stove or something, but that's about it.
There are people are grandfathered in to all kinds of sweetheart rent stabilized / mitchell lama / etc. deals but that takes more than having a group of friends and keeping your ears to the ground. That's the equivalent to winning the lotto.
East Village, Downtown, and Harlem were sublets I was renting while bouncing back and forth between NYC and Oklahoma while my father and mother were going through illnesses and traveling alot for work, the others I left because I wanted more space, to be closer to certain neighborhoods or because the new apt was better than the last.
None were illegal shares, none were rent controlled, one was rent stabilized, and all were very nice.
By the same token, I also don't doubt you could find a decent share where your half would be $1500 south of 96th street today, maybe even in the 20s somewhere.
Neither of those are a studio in the 20s for $1500 in 2015. If that exists, I wish I knew the secret handshake.