Any DUers' thoughts on moving to NYC? Done it? Wanted to do it? Should I?

[StellaBlue]

I have always wanted to live there, at least for a year. Since I can remember. My whole young life I felt like I was trapped in rural Texas and should've really been in Manhattan. Not because I am the Bergdorf's/lunching type but because I am a liberal/bohemian type/curious type.

Have any of you 'up and moved' to NYC? I cannot conceive of doing it until a year from now. But I have been thinking about it. Would that be nuts? Would I probably go there and never leave again?

Are there any Texans among us (other than Liz Carpenter) who went there and stayed?

I've lived in London, but I think NYC would be entirely different. A constant buzz.

How would one really go about 'moving to New York'?

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[MadAsHellNewYorker]

1. NY rocks. Its not that hard to move here

the two key pieces are an apartment and a job (or be independently wealthy). Its hard to find a place to live here when you are out of town, so when you pick up and move, you my want to make sure you have a friend to stay with so you don't end up homeless and without an apt. true you could get a place online, but you really should see it in real time to make sure you are getting a decent home.

[blackcatpgh]

2. i did it a few years back

except i went from pittsburgh to NYC (and back again).

as MadAsHellNewYorker said, job and apt. are key. we had to make a trip up for 1 week and stay with a friend while we looked for an apartment. we lucked out and got one on the last day we were there. the job was lined up before the apartment hunting, because some (most?) places want you to prove that you make "x" times your monthly rent in yearly salary (or something like that). hypothetical ex: to get a place that is $1350 per month (if you can find anything that "cheap"), you might have to prove that you make $50,000 per year. at least, that's was the case in the places we looked at -- my fiancee had to have a letter from her soon-to-be employer stating her salary in order to get our lease.

we had a little extra money, so we went through a broker. you pay them a %age of what the yearly rent will be on the place after you do the paperwork. we only did this because we only had 1 week to look for a place to live. we ended up with a really good deal on 9th ave in hell's kitchen, and only because we were the first people to look at it. if there are 8 prospective tenants, all with credit checks and a partial deposit down on a place that you're interested in, don't bother. it can take weeks to get that money back after they give the apartment to someone else. also, you'll see the phrase "no broker fee" in a lot of ads, but you usually end up paying more per month in rent (to make up for that "no broker fee").

that's my two cents. hopefully it's not incorrect or out of date.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

3. I did it!!!

I lived in NC for 15 years and the job that I do is particularly concentrated in NYC. In fact, if you want a career in my specialized field you either go to NYC or LA (sometimes S.Francisco). Anyway, I made the move and, like others mentioned, the hardest part was to get an apartment. I moved less than 1 year after 9/11, in an apartment only 2 blocks from the WTC. It was a very nice 550 sq ft studio in a doorman bldg for $1575 a month, with the second year of the lease increasing to $1754. With the government grants they were giving away at that time, it was affordable. Now that same studio goes for $2395 :wow:

When my hubby and two dogs finally joined us, we ended up moving across the Hudson in Jersey City, but we come to Manhattan for work and play.

The hardest part is certainly finding a place to live (of course, the hardest part would be finding a job first, unless you already come with one set up) at a decent price.

But there's nothing that I'd rather do than walk around Greenwich Village and look at the architecture and those beautiful brownstones. I figure this is one of those life experiences that I'll be glad to have had when I'm old and grey.