Deciding Where to Live

Once you’ve made the momentous decision to move out of your childhood bedroom, it’s time to find a place to set up camp. There are no more Hogwarts-esque “sorting hats” like parents or college housing offices to ensure that you have a room to call your own, so the responsibility rests squarely on your shoulders to figure out what you value in a living space, how much you are willing to spend, and where exactly you want to live. To do so, it is necessary to balance the three main criteria for judging an apartment: neighborhood/location, cost, and space.

Going in blind will suck up an entire week’s worth of apartment hunting as you look at a slew of initial apartments that are all too expensive, too small, or too far from where you want to be. Why even venture to that one bedroom for $500/month more than you can afford or that cheap studio that’s impossibly located a half an hour away from the nearest form of transportation? Apartment hunting is a tough gig, so tip the balance in your favor by starting out on the right foot.

Cost

Obviously, the first thing to figure out is how much you can actually afford. Leaving college means balancing paychecks with expenses for the first time, which can be difficult without experience. Things like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, and take-out can really add up, so make sure to account for all of those expenses in your monthly budget. Most experts suggest that a person’s rent should make up no more than a third of his or her monthly income. Now, if you’re making $50,000 a year before taxes that comes to at most $900 a month — not a lot for a city like New York where some parking spots cost $900 a month, but not necessarily impossible. One key to figuring out cost is to determine whether you want (or can afford) to live alone, or if you are going to have roommates. Living with roommates cuts down the cost of renting an apartment by a lot, but it can also compromise sleep and sanity. Check out our article on Roommate Living for more information and/or use our roommate finder. Just remember: be conservative with your budget so you’re not running back to mom and dad for handouts a few months after moving in.

Neighborhood

The cost of an apartment or house will vary greatly depending on the neighborhood. Moving in next to Jennifer Aniston (oh my god like oh my god do you think we’ll be besties?) will likely drive up the cost of the rent by a substantial margin. The key is to figure out what and whom you want to be surrounded by. Different neighborhoods have different identities, so it’s important to tailor your search accordingly—do some research by checking out travel guides, local newspapers/magazines, and online resources. However, the best thing you can do is pick out a few potential neighborhoods and go hang out there. Spend a Saturday walking around, and then go back at night to see if it feels safe. Go with your instincts and see what feels right.

One word of warning: It’s easy to get suckered into thinking that the coolness of a neighborhood trumps the practical concerns associated with living there, but in most cases it doesn’t. The place you like to shop, party, or hang out does not necessarily have to be the place you live, particularly if it costs an arm and a leg. Here are some more pressing concerns to consider first.

• Proximity to work. Will an hour commute to and from work make you want to impale yourself on a rusty spike? If you drive, what will the morning traffic be like? Would you rather wake up half an hour later every weekday or be closer to your friends on the weekends?
• Proximity to transportation. Can you get everywhere you need to go without a car? Note that if there’s an express bus, train, or highway to shoot you to work in the morning, it might be easier to live in a different area or town than it would be to live geographically closer but three trains and a 10 minute walk away.
• Cost. Basically, can you afford it? (See above).
• Safety. Getting jacked up frequently is probably going to cost you more in the long run that a little bit of extra rent each month.
• Convenience. Grocery stores, banks, and pharmacies should be easily accessible, or else you might get aggravated and/or hungry.
• Other. How much to you value being close to friends, restaurants, bars, parks, and anything else that will make your life more convenient and enjoyable?