Places to live

The first thing you have to do is find a place to live. Be prepared for sticker shock. Urban Hostess, which has a partnership with J.P. Morgan, can give you good information on neighborhoods and rents. Many of our people live within blocks of the office so they can get to work and home quickly. Others want to get a little distance, to separate home from work.
New York City is divided into five boroughs, and Manhattan is the smallest. The others are Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. All of them are generally less expensive on the whole than Manhattan, or you get more space for the same amount in rent.

If you want to venture outside Manhattan, check the real estate section in the New York Times. Sometimes, you have to think outside of the island - Manhattan island that is. For example, there are wonderful neighborhoods in Brooklyn - Park Slope, Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass). But they're pretty fashionable, so it's harder to find a bargain. You may do better in Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill or Fort Greene.
Queens has lots of lovely, family-oriented neighborhoods, and the rents are lower. Look at Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Jackson Heights or Astoria. Long Island City is undergoing a massive urban renewal, and has the advantage of being one subway stop away from Grand Central Terminal.

Once you find a place to live, chances are you will have to furnish and decorate it – although some sublets can come furnished. Of course you can go to great lengths to decorate and equip your new home with all new things, but this can get expensive and can be taxing on time as well (waiting for deliveries and installment). Try searching newyork.craigslist.org for people in the New York area selling furniture, or whatever else you need. Often, the sellers are even willing to do a direct drop-off or pick-up, which means no shipping costs.

IKEA is also great for low-cost furnishings. You don't even have to have a car to make the trip to the nearest IKEA location; on Saturdays and Sundays there's a free IKEA (round trip only) shuttle bus to Elizabeth, New Jersey from the Port Authority Terminal located at Eight Avenue and 42nd Street.

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