Apartment Buildings in UWS or Tribeca

http://www.nybits.com/

Those are very different neighborhoods. Maybe state where you will need to commute to for work and what you like to do in free time and people can help with suggestions. Be prepared for a bit of a surprise with how little that budget will get you!

>Maybe state where you will need to commute to for work

Likely midtown west.

>Be prepared for a bit of a surprise with how little that budget will get you!

$3000 won't get much of anything.

Thank you for the responses. Much appreciated.

We know that we're more likely to be up nearer the 4000 mark but it seems for a small 1 bedroom we should get something decent.

We came to those 2 areas because they were the only 2 areas that had many of the things we liked that we could also afford. We love going out to restaurants, shopping, running outside, parks, water and like an area to be well kept. We also really want to experience the big city atmosphere. We know we can't get everything we want in one place but each of those areas had a few of the things we are looking for. I also work remotely so as long as we're near public transport we'll be fine.

We liked the lower end of UWS because it appears to be safe, clean, near the park and have some good restaurants.

We chose Tribeca because it's safe, nice and has great night life.

We haven't ruled out the north end of the financial district and planned to visit The Gehry.

We've spent a lot of time on nybits looking at what buildings were available at our price point but we really want to hear from the people who live there. People opinions of the buildings are the most important thing to us.

you should rent a small 1 bed walk up in the west village.

"We also really want to experience the big city atmosphere"

If this is VERY important, I would go with Tribeca. In the UWS, you wouldn't get the same big city atmosphere (of course it depends on your defn).

OTOH, if it's not THAT important, most of the other criteria lean more to the UWS (Central Park, Riverside Park, running outside, Hudson River, restaurants, etc...).

PS: I'd stay away from the financial district based on your criteria.

Good Luck

atodd: you might want to give an idea of your age range as well, although I am guessing middle-aged or above given your preferences.

First, I don't think there is anywhere in Manhattan that you will be looking that would be unsafe.

Second, there is a massive difference between uptown and downtown. I personally prefer downtown, but given your list and budget I think UWS might be for you. I agree with ggman that West Village is probably the best for you, but you won't be able to get a nice new place.

As vsle says: avoid FiDi no matter what the deal is you might get. Prices there reflect the desirability. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Take a look in Gramercy, which seems to be slightly affordable these days.

Flatiron/Nomad next to the park is great as well. Big city atompshere, historic district, next to the park, great transportation, shopping, restaurants, EATALY...etc.

Gramercy is awesome but there are no parks to run in nearby. Going to the East River is more than a half mile (River is at Avenue D). Other than that it is a near-perfect neighborhood, convenient to everywhere (except the UWS) lots to do but not uptight, pretentious or full of tourists.

>> We liked the lower end of UWS because it appears to be safe, clean, near the park and have some good restaurants.
>> We chose Tribeca because it's safe, nice and has great night life.

I would try Battery Park City North. Safe, Clean, has its own parks. Walk across west-side-highway to tribeca for the restaurants

For $4000 in Tribeca you will get a dirty closet atop a 5 floor walkup with a roomate.

On the UWS you will live next to two annoying lawyers.

In Tribeca check out 200 Chambers street. http://streeteasy.com/nyc/building/200-chambers-street-new_york

Fairly New Condo, Near water, parks and has swimming pool.

but if you are at the upper range of the middle age area than Tribeca may not be for you.

Wife is 28. Husband is 34. Thank you all for your suggestions. We will certainly check out these areas; i.e. Gramercy, Flatiron, NoMad, West Village. . . Does anybody have any building suggestions? There are endless options and we are trying to narrow it down to buildings that aren't known to be bed bug infested, full of horrible tenants,maintenance that doesn't give a hoot, etc. Any buildings in these areas that have GOOD reputations?

@ renterjoey- thank you for the suggestion of 200 Chambers street. We'll check it out.

You'll die of dry rot if you move to the UWS or TriBeCa.

You'll be glad you rented a 2BR in Williamsburgh instead. Near Bedford Avenue on the L train.

From where are you moving?

If you don't make much money (or you can show that you don't) you can apply for affordable housing at 89 murray street in Tribeca. Its dirt cheap.

Alan- we don't want to move to Brooklyn. We want to live in Manhattan.

Thanks ggman, we'll add that to the list.

Atodd, I had same sentiments when I came to NYC and people are very opinionated about what neighbourhood you must live in. If you are coming here for a week or something it will be very hard to see places in all those buildings. What I did instead was rent a furnished place for a few months and get a better feel of what you like before settling. At your age you likely want to be downtown and avoid UWS (see article on NORCs) and be a little realistic about what you can afford. Forget about WV, don't even waste your time. And Tribeca? For me it is actually quite isolated, quiet and a bit boring. Bed bug stuff is not a real issue these days

Ottawanyc, not to nitpick too much, but you misspelled neighborhood.

SE, why?

That's the queen's English hb.

I knew Leona Helmsley, and she would never spell it that way.

SE, why?

Ottawanyc was referring to Charles Nelson Reilly.

Greendale, I'm guessing from the name Ottawanyc is from Canada and in Canada and the UK neighborhood is spelt with a u.

Ottawanyc, We thought about doing that but when we looked into it the costs were going to be twice as much. Our hope is to that people may be able to give a few suggestions on buildings to visit so at the least we can get an idea about what we need to be looking for and at best we find somewhere we really like.

Thanks again

>Greendale, I'm guessing from the name Ottawanyc is from Canada

Funny, I thought because of the "Otta" that he was from Norwegia.

Atodd: We found something quite reasonable to rent furnished. Lots of places on AIRBNB that are reasonable. AS a newbie in NYC I lived for a bit over a year around union square and it was fantastic as I could explore all the neighborhoods (note US spelling) and even Eataly. Careful getting stuck out on the frings where there is no transport - ie battery park. Are you using a broker?

Thanks again for the feedback Ottawanyc. All the places we were interested in were no fee so we didn't think it necessary to get a broker. We also haven't had a lot of luck with brokers in the past. If we find that our trip doesn't give us what we need we'll certainly look further into AIRBNB.

The only building we were considering in the financial district was the gehry and that was because it appeared to be right on the border of Tribeca. After reading the responses to this thread we certainly won't be adding any more from that area to the list.

The buildings we have so far are:

New York by Gehry (financial district)
50 Murray St (Tribeca)
Tribeca Tower
The Continental (Midtown South - long shot)
The Ormonde (UWS)
Aire (UWS)
160 W 73rd St (UWS)

There have been a lot of great suggestions for areas. Has no one got any suggestions for buildings we should look into within those areas?

I have lived in various buildings on the UWS. Here are some thoughts...

Lincoln Square has a few nice buildings and is a great area close to Central Park and not far from midtown with great transportation options and a few recent renovations. One to avoid would be One Lincoln Plaza due to the constant ongoing construction/ disruption from building and individual apartments, smelly factor from the restaurants downstairs (particularly at night on floors 25 and below) and somewhat nursing home feel at times due to high average age of tenants.

Riverside Boulevard on the Hudson has some beautiful new buildings although it is further from transportation. I'd recommend 60 (The Aldyn) and 80 riverside blvd (The Rushmore) and look into condo owners renting directly in addition to the rental offices in the buildings. They are a 10-15m walk from the subway trains; but there are buses and shuttles. They are on Riverside Park, which is nice and you can occasionally get some very reasonable deals well within your price range.

Otherwise you have a good list. I wish you luck.

Mac2- thank you so much for your thoughtful suggestions and response. These are some things that we will look into and thanks for all your insight on things to consider- such as the possible geriatric neighbors or the proximity to odoriferous establishments. You're awesome.