# Cost Of Living in New York and LA?



## Amani (Aug 1, 2008)

Hi, 

I know that this question must have been asked on numerous occasions before but can someone please advise.

Cost of living in New York and LA?
Maybe a website I could refer to or a spreadsheet of some sort.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

The cost of living is very expensive in both NY (assuming you mean NY City) and LA. Those are probably among the two most expensive cities in the US.

I've found that most real estate websites in the US have links to information comparing the cost of living between various cities in the US. Try the websites for Century21, Realtor.com, Coldwell Banker or any of the big, national real estate chains.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Amani (Aug 1, 2008)

Bevdeforges said:


> The cost of living is very expensive in both NY (assuming you mean NY City) and LA. Those are probably among the two most expensive cities in the US.
> 
> I've found that most real estate websites in the US have links to information comparing the cost of living between various cities in the US. Try the websites for Century21, Realtor.com, Coldwell Banker or any of the big, national real estate chains.
> Cheers,
> Bev


thank you kindly.


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## bobodaclown (Oct 15, 2008)

NYC is dead expensive! well for apartments anyway. A studio larger then a shoebox in Manhatten will set you back at least $1550 and that moves up to around $1650+ for the nicer/trendy neghbourhoods i.e UWS, Soho ect. So pretty much $20k a year goes to rent, and dont expect nice apartment too for that price. I have found that almost everything else is bareable.


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## Amani (Aug 1, 2008)

bobodaclown said:


> NYC is dead expensive! well for apartments anyway. A studio larger then a shoebox in Manhatten will set you back at least $1550 and that moves up to around $1650+ for the nicer/trendy neghbourhoods i.e UWS, Soho ect. So pretty much $20k a year goes to rent, and dont expect nice apartment too for that price. I have found that almost everything else is bareable.


Hi, thanks for this.
Do you know which websites I could check out. Im looking at the Columbia University area as I am familiar with this area having lived there before.


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## bobodaclown (Oct 15, 2008)

Amani said:


> Hi, thanks for this.
> Do you know which websites I could check out. Im looking at the Columbia University area as I am familiar with this area having lived there before.


no problems. The catch here (which is different to back home Oz) is that real estate agents charge a fee which is usually around 15% of the yearly rent. So for something around $1600 you'd have to pay around $2800 to the agent along with usually 1st month, last month and 1 month security deposit. 

The Columbia area (pretty much Harlem) is not as trendy as other areas so you may be saved a little as around the W 120's you can maybe even get a 1 bedroom for the price I was talking about. As long as you find a place that is real close to the red 1,2,3 train lines you should be fine.

The best website that everyone users is craigslist | apartments, you may be lucky enough to find a landlord putting up an Ad and avoide the real estate broker fees all together.

feel free to ask anymore question, I live in the W 80's so am pretty close to where your looking at and have lived on W109 in the past.


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