haha different neighborhoods of NYC are like totally different countries. that's why NYC rules.

i recommend checking out Long Island City. I think places there are still relatively cheap (at least more so than Williamsburg and Greenpoint) and it's got good access to Manhattan.

I live in and love Carroll Gardens, but it is a tad expensive. You can find some affordable places around 3rd Ave I think though. Check out Gowanus.

I live in Windsor Terrace...it looks kinda ****ty but it's a very chill/convenient neighborhood. Lots of mexican families...friendly. My apt is 2 br...2bath...back porch..private roof..storage room...brand new building for the price you are looking for....subway right by too....gl with the search

I have friends in Windsor Terrace and I like the neighborhood a lot. Can't beat the access to the park. But everyone I know who lives there practically has to whisper and tiptoe to avoid disturbing neighbors. I guess that's why I would eventually need a loft type of situation.

Speaking of which - when you guys mention "dorms" in Bushwick or whatever do you mean loft spaces without room dividers?

Thanks again for all the replies. This has been informative!
-c

pretty much... it's where everyone who is in or recently graduated from art school live and make shantytowns out of sheet rock purchased from home depot. there are two huge bldgs on mckibbin and a couple others by siegel.

the bushwick "dorms" are old factory buildings that have been converted to living spaces. some are better than others, but they're typically large spaces where the occupants have put up room dividers or created rooms. when i had friends there, someone was always building or modifying their space. not sure if it's changed or not. some have 4 or 5 people living in them. parties are frequent. it's pretty social if you like that kind of thing.

my buddy's place. freaking huge, but i wouldn't say cheap. i would like to give a shout out to flatbush, where i don't live but would like to. a little out of the way, but fairly easy bike and train access. close to prospect park. mad cheap. and there's a beautiful organic co-op on cortleyou street (that doesn't exclude non-members).

that said, i have a fairly beautiful place in a brick brownstone in gowanus that's fairly large and extremely cheap. great neighborhood, safe and interesting, nice mix of yuppies and working class folks, little hipster class tension. my roommate leaves his bike locked outside overnight. it's that chill.

(my place is a 2-br that i share. it's just outside of your limit, sruti. i recommend you check this area out. convenient to park slope all the south brooklyn neighborhoods)

Well, not dirt cheap, but compared to my neighborhood it was a bargain. Thanks again. That ride back to Manhattan would have sucked without a little pre-warming.

Where??

would it be possible to find a one bedroom in manhattan for 1500.00 a month or less. I'm not moving there for two years but htis info would be nice to have.

I'm thinking about moving to NYC as well, in June. About once a week I find a deal in the Bronx or the Lower East Side for 600-700$/month for studios or basements. Me and my current roommate are pretty interested in moving to NYC after visiting. I don't think I could afford what some of you could though. Hell, I'm just a cashier at a deli.
edit: And I just found a studio apartment in Jersey City, 2 miles from Manhattan. Is Jersey City lame? I wouldnt mind living there because it's a short bike ride to all the happenings in NYC.

i'm in sunset park. i've been here for 5 years. i love it. it's 5.75 miles from the city.

the real estate market in the city has reached its peak. there are tons of residential development projects that have just wrapped up, lots of commercial to residential conversions that have been completed as a result of rezonings and tons of both new developments/new conversions that will be completed in the next 18 months. the trend in surplus availability that has been trickling out should help to cool prices considerably by 2 years from now.

i've been looking at prices on apts for sale while thinking about selling mine and getting something bigger. they stopped going up about 2 months ago. hopefully that'll become increasingly more obvious in rentals.

1500 is plenty even now.

i recommended gowanus to him, but i'm not exactly clear where it is. i have a general idea, but do you know what are considered the boundaries of gowanus?

yeah, my plan right now is to try and buy something after finishing my grad program and going back to work, which will be in a year and a half. hopefully the housing bubble will have deflated a bit by then.

i lived in Inwood (200th st) for three years. when i moved into the apartment up there, it was for sale for $180,000 for a 600ft 1 bedroom overlooking ft. tryon. i didnt buy it cause i wasn't sure if i'd like the neighborhood or want to stay in NYC long. BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE! by the time i moved out , having paid $1300 a month in rent for three years, the apartment was worth $240,000.

mine has gone up in value SIX TIMES what i paid for it in 1999. real estate is a sick, sick joke.

I've wondered that before, its so much easier to call it South Brooklyn. Well easier until you have to explain that its not Bay Ridge its the area south of the old city of Brooklyn...

haha yeah, but south brooklyn also includes red hook, carroll gardens, cobble hill, and boerum i think

gowanus is kinda nebulous and small. i would say it's bounded by 4th ave, 9th st, sackett and smith, and that's being generous.

ps anyone see the article on the south bk casket company in sunday's times? i lived right next door to there (575 union) for 3 years

ok, that's the area i figured was gowanus. yeah, that area is pretty cheap, relatively nice, and near tons of stuff. i've advocated for several of my friends to move there, but they haven't.

Sheepshead Bay! Fresh fish, beach near by, Pips and that's about it.

i've always found it strange that 'uptown' and the upper east & west sides were the 60's through 90's. it's as if harlem and beyond doesn't really count. weird.

When yuppie white people do the naming...besides, no one really knows where Yorkville begins or ends. It's passed out of the knowledge of the general populace.

i believe he means Cortelyou Road.
we have roads down my way in kensington / ditmas park.

had to chime in, it isn't often that anyone mentions anything in my neighborhood.
Everybody is all "cobble gardens," "park slope," "williamsburg," "bushwick" and "fort greene" all the time.
If you add up every brooklyn neighborhood mentioned in this thread it adds up to about 1/5 of brooklyn.
(okay, maybe 1/4)

You want a cheap place? Just live further from manhattan and have a longer ride to work. Really, its just that simple.

I came to the right place, obviously. Thanks for all the info! My brother is in Kensington and friends are in Windsor Terrace, so lots of my people are clustered around the south side of the park. Maybe I'll run into some of y'all there...