NYC apartment hunting has never been easy
but now with ever-soaring prices… New Yorkers are challenged with fresh inventive ways to turn frowns upside down during the current pandemic housing struggle. And most of it involves keeping open minds and accepting the fact of the ever-dreaded compromises.
Renters make up two-thirds of all NYC households, where rents rose more than 30 percent between January 2021 and January 2022, according to Apartment List. Remember early pandemic deals with promises of one or more months of free rent? Sadly, most of those offers have dried up and now affordable housing remains as difficult to find as ever, meaning renters face intense competition to snap up apartments as soon as they are listed, if not somehow before. Whatever challenges this market presents, people still have millions of reasons to move and are managing to do so.
Below, are NYT reader stories on how they managed to find homes in this insane housing market.
Slipping back into my 20s.
$900/month: One room in a five-bed, two-and-a-half-bath apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
image: Rebecca Sullivan
Rebecca lived with a good friend until the friend found a rent-stabilized one-bedroom and decided not to renew the lease in March 2022, not knowing what the rent increase would be ahead of time, which turned out to be a whopping 33 percent. A travel nurse only in town six months or so out of the year, the increase was one she couldn’t justify the cost of.
Enter Craigslist. (Hello Craig!) She found the teeny tiny little room seen above in an established apartment with four other female roommates in their 20s and 30s. The apartment is big but she admits to feeling like she lives in a youth hostel at the age of 32, like slipping back into her 20s — in a very unpleasant way.
Her biggest challenge was that out of emailing 25-30 people in her housing search she received just two responses. After viewing the two rooms, she had to compromise a lot of wishes and wants, and greatly downsize to fit into a tiny bedroom.
Her compromises? Her commute is longer and she’s farther from Prospect Park. But the rent is under $1,000 in a cozy, tree-filled neighborhood, which was an important goal she got to keep.
Applying for affordable housing for years.
$975/mo: Studio apartment in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
image: Kenny M. Alvarez
Kenny’s story is incredible. A Marine Corps veteran who experienced homelessness for over a year back in the day, in 2013, he lived in a Supportive Housing community run by nonprofit The Doe Fund. The supportive housing building offered vouchers under the Housing Preservation and Development Housing Choice Voucher program, allowing him to participate in the affordable housing lottery. He received the voucher during the pandemic after several years of applying for hundreds of places.
The biggest challenge after all of that was finding a landlord willing to accept the voucher program, even as the state mandated that they couldn’t discriminate against those renting under it. But he eventually signed his lease with the lottery apartment in December 2020.
The best part for Kenny is that the rent-stabilized apartment is completely his own, and says it’s the best place he’s ever lived in, with amenities like an in-unit washer and dryer in an attractive neighborhood. With immense gratitude, he even has a panoramic waterfront view and he can see from One World Trade up to Midtown.
Let’s aim affordable housing at people who make less money, not more.
$2,645/mo (with 3 months free on a 15-month lease): One-bed, one-bath apartment in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
images: Holly Wang
Holly found her place on StreetEasy in August 2021 after looking two months before the lease from her previous apartment ended to get a sense of how much prices had increased and to see what she could afford in her own neighborhood.
Deciding to live alone after having a roommate she set a budget of $2,500 a month for either a large studio to divide into separate spaces, or a one-bedroom. Preferring to live in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, she was also open to moving slightly closer to the city.
She applied for an apartment in a 100 percent affordable housing building in Prospect Heights, but didn’t make enough money to live in a one-bedroom there, and feels like these buildings should be aimed at people who make less money, not more.
Luckily, she found her spot in a new building with several units available, and was able to spend a few days mulling it over before applying.
The rent was a little over the $2,500 budget but with three months free on a15-month lease the net rent came down just under budget. The new building has several amenities like a gym, lounge, and a co-working space. But the real seller is a washer and dryer in-unit.
Starting to feel crazy.
$1,400/mo: Rent-stabilized studio apartment in Astoria, Queens
image: Trevor
Trevor moved to New York City in 2020 after landing his first post-college job to live in a cramped, four-bed, one-bath apartment on the border of Ridgewood and Bushwick with random roommates. He had moved in mid-February but when the pandemic hit, sadly, he had to move back home to live with his parents in Allentown, Pa.
After working so hard to move to the city he felt like it was ripped away in a second. The days ticked by in PA so in May 2021 he started looking for apartments again — only to discover how quickly they were snatched up. Scrolling StreetEasy one afternoon he found a studio in Astoria with two big windows, a kitchen with a full-sized fridge and even an oven and took an $80 bus ride into the city to see the apartment and knew it was the one.
“You should probably see a few others, right? Before you make a decision?” (his parents) thought he was crazy and he started to agree. And yet he took another $80 bus ride the next weekend to sign the lease. Now, he looks out the large windows to see the pink sky as the sun sets and can’t help but realize how lucky he was.
Suckers R Not Us.
$2,200/mo: Studio apartment in Gramercy, Manhattan
image: Rosalee Lewis
Rosalee had snagged a “Covid deal” lease in January 2021 for a teeny tiny Greenwich Village studio. Thrilled to live alone for the first time, she didn’t mind the size for $1,395 a month, far less than she paid to live in a four-bedroom in Chelsea in 2018. But then the following October the next year’s rent rose by nearly $1,000, an increase she didn’t think the bedroom-with-a-kitchenette was worth.
So in December 2021 she started hitting up StreetEasy and continued in earnest through early January 2022 and found it to be a nightmare. Even upping her budget to $3,200 just to see if spaces felt worth it. (They didn’t) and often involved a 15 percent broker’s fee. She simply does not identify as a sucker, so she quit that.
Deciding she would not be wrangled into spending over $3,000 a month or having roommates again, she calmed down; at 31, she’d had enough of all that. She made plans to store things and wait it out from her parents’, or friends’, or even Mexico, if she couldn’t find something she was comfortable with.
Until one day scrolling through StreetEasy, she finally found a suitable studio to view and the broker indicated there was actually one more; a building that had just opened up. They showed it to her, she liked it and it felt right, and she took it. SUCCESS.
Perfect timing
$2,700/mo: Two-bedroom in Astoria, Queens
image: Stephanie Le
When Stephanie’s rent for a Rockland County two-bedroom apartment increased from $2,600 to $2,900, she discovered that rents for two-bedrooms in her former Washington Heights neighborhood ranged from $2,400-2,800 and decided to move back to the city at the end of her lease in 2022.
She applied to the housing lottery for Washington Heights even though she felt her chances of getting selected were practically nil. Instead, she was selected to apply for an apartment with a monthly rent of $3,200 which was a little over her budget, but a price she could manage by cutting back on certain things.
Happy accidents to the rescue? After hastily submitting the paperwork under the wrong housing portal tab, her log number had been passed. Heartbroken and devastated, she missed her shot. But a month later she was selected for another apartment with a monthly rent of just $2,400 and (making sure to submit the paperwork in the right place) she was invited to see the lovely but too small 540SF apartment, and withdrew the application.
Enter love at first sight AKA third time’s the charm. Another month went by and she was selected again — this time, for a $2,700, 750-square-foot two-bedroom. The process took a month before finally signing the lease for a December move-in. The timing was perfect and the monthly rent aligns with her budget.
$6,000 as security and first month’s rent — within hours
$1,500/mo: One room in a two-bed, one-bath apartment in Crown Heights, Brooklyn
image: Kyle Gorman
After living in the building for one year, Kyle’s Park Slope landlord raised the rent 40% (from $2,700 to $3,800) for his two-bedroom. They had been assured when moving in that the landlord wouldn’t make any exorbitant increase in rent, but in the end they did.
Due to the intense housing market right now there is much pressure to make decisions and manifest a small fortune to simply secure a new place. As Kyle works for the city and his roommate is in entertainment — they are not rich people, and moving two times in one year is incredibly exhausting — and expensive.
They found a place on StreetEasy but had to apply before seeing the apartment to even have a chance, and upon seeing the apartment, they had to come up with $6,000 as security and first month’s rent within hours. After doing his part to help keep the city going during the pandemic and not escaping like so many others did, he feels let down by the process, price, and experience.
Not missing Brooklyn at all.
$2,600/mo: Two-bed, one-bath apartment in Hamilton Heights, Manhattan
image: Tamara Vallejos
Tamara’s story embraces numerous New York City pandemic layers. In December 2021, her boyfriend was living in Central Harlem, while she was in Prospect Lefferts Gardens. She’d had to move the year prior from Prospect Heights because after her two roommates left the city due to Covid job loss. And she herself had only moved to New York City in summer 2019.
After meeting her boyfriend in March 2020, the nature of hunkering down in the pandemic greatly accelerated the relationship and they wanted to move in together because of the awful Harlem-to-Brooklyn commute. Her preference for a work from home two bedroom Brooklyn apartment proved too pricey and they were frequently outbid. And Tamara refused to bid for a rental on principle alone.
But surprise surprise, Manhattan was shockingly, significantly cheaper, with several units in West Harlem being in their price range. Luckily, they discovered a scrappy real estate agent, very early in her career and eager to help far beyond what any other agent cared to, and she found them a no-fee gem before it even posted on StreetEasy.
The agent didn’t have a building key to show it so she waited outside until a resident let her in. Tamara and her boyfriend were the first and only people to view the place and as a result were able to secure it. No bidding wars! Fair rent! Wonderful amenities! And the added bonus of a fantastic, attentive live-in super! Feeling lucky, they adore everything about the new neighborhood and don’t miss Brooklyn at all.
Worth taking the risk.
$4,600/mo: Two-bed, two-bath apartment in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn
image: Martin Vogts
Martin and Marcella lived and worked in a beautiful but cramped West Village one-bedroom since the start of the pandemic and needed more space to accommodate both home and office living. Direct sunlight throughout the day was on the wish list.
Starting to look for apartments at the end of June 2021, they spent weeks going to mobbed open houses to see overpriced, rundown apartments, and fruitlessly reaching out to real estate agents until one day Marcella had the idea to walk around the neighborhoods they wanted to live in (now that is what we call OLD SCHOOL) and wrote down phone numbers of management companies off the placards on buildings they were drawn to.
One management company’s properties all appeared to be well renovated, older buildings. The couple reached out and were quickly given pictures of units soon coming to market, and were impressed with what they saw. But the company wouldn’t let them visit. So they needed to either wait for units to hit the market and risk losing out — or sign without a tour. Fortunately, they were able to track down a floor plan and decided it was worth the risk after all. They signed in early July for a mid-September move in. (Gutsy!)
They love the large living room in particular, being on the fourth floor means their windows are just above the tree line, which translates to their wish list item of full sun all morning and well into afternoons. Win/Win!
