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Quote:

Originally posted by AEPhiSierra
in terms of neighborhoods outside of manhattan you may want to consider Astoria and Long Island City in Queens and Williamsburg, Ft. Greene, Carroll Gardens, Greenpoint in Brooklyn. (I am not too familiar with the Bronx) Those are the areas most of my friends moved to since they didn't want to pay Manhattan rents. Carroll Gardens and real Williamsburg (the real estate agents have made the area more expansive as it has gotten more popular) may be a little bit more expensive then the rest though. Commuting from any of these areas isn't too bad.

Too my fellow NYC people: have i left out any other good areas?

I love Astoria! It's getting a little more expensive, though. Woodside and Sunnyside are close to Manhattan and reasonable. I like LIC too, but parts of it are nice and parts of it are very very dicey.

Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and especially Carroll Gardens are becoming just as expensive as Manhattan. You can still get a reasonable place in (SOME PARTS OF) Park Slope and Prospect Heights. Forget Brooklyn Heights.

It's hard to pinpoint an average, because rent is based on so many things--age of the apartment, size, proximity to a subway (and whether or not it's an express or local stop), and a bunch of other things. A good way to figure out how much you can afford is to divide your annual salary by 40 (ie, if you make 40K, you can probably manage 1K for rent). Keep in mind, though, that you won't necessarily make more in New York, even though the cost of living is high. Some fields here--the arts, non-profits, publishing--are so saturated that they can pay peanuts and still have to turn people away.