Guides
Guides to renting in New York — what a stay actually costs, how the options compare, and what to ask before you sign.
Intern housing in NYC
What a summer in New York actually costs, how the options really compare, and where a private studio fits.
Somewhere to live when the university cannot house you.
Four campuses within about half a mile, a private studio with its own bathroom, and no broker fee — for the graduate student, transfer or mid-year arrival the housing office could not place.
“Furnished” can mean a bed frame, or it can mean you arrive with a suitcase
The word is doing an enormous amount of work in New York listings, and it is not a standard. Here is what to check, in what order, before you agree to anything.
You searched for a room in New York. Here is what one really costs.
What a room actually costs once the broker fee, the guarantor and the furniture are counted — and where a private studio lands against one.
Co-living solves a real problem in New York. It may not be the one you have.
What purpose-built co-living gets right, what it asks you to share, and how to tell which of the two you actually want.
A roommate is the cheapest way to live in New York — until you count what it costs.
The arithmetic behind a shared room, both ways it can go, and the things that go wrong that have nothing to do with money.
Shorter pieces
- The Graduate Center is a doctoral campus, and doctoral students have a different housing problem.
Housing near the CUNY Graduate Center at 365 Fifth Avenue — private furnished studios about half a mile north. Ensuite bath, utilities in, from 9 months.
- The guarantor question is not about whether you can pay. It is about who pays if you stop.
How the NYC guarantor system works, who can act as one, what a guarantor service does, and what a renter with no US credit history can offer instead.
- Your offer lands in February and the room you want for June is not listed yet.
When to look for summer intern housing in New York — why the recruiting and housing calendars are out of step, and a month-by-month plan from January.
- You cannot see the room, so make someone else walk it for you
How to judge a furnished NYC room you cannot visit: steering a video tour, what photos hide, what to get in writing, and how to avoid a rental scam.
- The building will show you its best hour. What you need is the other twenty-three.
What to ask on a co-living tour and what to look at while you are there — the shared kitchen at 8pm, the bathroom ratio, the fees, and who answers at 2am.
- A roommate agreement will not make you a tenant. It will settle most of the arguments that end shares.
What a New York roommate agreement should say, clause by clause — lease, rent, deposit, bills, notice and damage — and what it cannot do for you.