Short-term rental housing in Manhattan

[summilux]

My daughter is considering doing a 6-week research internship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in midtown Manhattan. She needs to find her own place to live and my advice was to find something on aribnb or vrbo. It's been decades since I've been in NYC so I have no idea what neighbourhoods are like these days. She found some "affordable" (if one considers $2K/month affordable) places in Harlem and Morningside Heights. Is there any borough in Manhattan that should be avoided? Any insights into the Manhattan rental market would be greatly appreciated.

[htwoopup]

Tried to send you a message but your box is full.

[summilux]

cleared

[j44ke]

Harlem and Morningside Heights are pretty safe these days. Our friends live in a nice apartment in an owner managed building on 116th and 2nd, and they have good neighbors who take their mail in and feed their cats while they are away. And a chicken taco place and a bodega and a garage that works on BMW's, etc. There are of course bad areas/blocks, but the things you might think make for a bad area (like a bodega that always has guys standing around outside) might actually be the thing that keeps those areas safe (those guys are the informal local government.) The best thing to do is check the street address against the NYC Crime Map. You can search by street and look at the area to see what's up.

NYC Crime Map

The commute is also important. There are voids even in Manhattan where it takes a while to get to a subway. We have friends who live at FDR and Grand in a very nice apartment with a lovely view of the East River and the harbor. But it is 7 blocks to the nearest subway - fine if the weather is nice but in the middle of January probably a real drudge. Your daughter's work stops would be Lexington Ave. & 53rd with the E and M trains, and 51st St with the 6 train. So she might look along those lines and see where apartments start popping up that look affordable.

$2K a month is affordable.

The midtown part of Sloan Kettering at 53rd and 3rd (as opposed to the 69th & York main hospital) is right near my wife's office. Some of the summer law students find short term rentals in the Sutton Place neighborhood and in the cluster of apartment buildings between the Queensboro Bridge and the UN. The walk there to Sloan isn't bad, because you are basically two blocks to 3rd and then over two or three to Sloan. It can be a very posh area, but there are affordable rentals in that area. Whether she can find them on VRBO or AirBnB, I know not.

Also the E 80's east of 2nd Ave is also a sleeper area in terms of affordable places to live. The disadvantage there used to be that you had to walk uphill several blocks to the 6 train. The advantage now is that there is a new Q train that runs up and down 2nd Ave from 63rd (where she can transfer to/from the 6) up to 96th. So the rents are probably shooting up in that area, but I'd look anyway as for a long time those apartments were cheap and full of 20-30 year olds trying to dig their fingernails into Manhattan.

Also the apartments between 2nd and 3rd (24th/25th to 30th - often called Curry Hill) and the apartment buildings between 2nd and 1st in the Kips Bay area (basically between 2nd and NYU/Bellevue/VA.) That area is getting more grocery stores and other developments after Tishman Speyer bought Stuyvesant and Peter Cooper from Metropolitan Life (and realized why Met Life sold it.) She shouldn't discount the large buildings of Stuyvesant and Peter Cooper either, though they are once again getting a bit far from it all.

[summilux]

Thanks Jorn that was super informative. As long as its safe, I don't mind her living in a dump. It's only for six weeks after all and living in crappy housing is part of growing up. I'd be cool to have her in NYC so we could visit.

[htwoopup]

Safety in this urban environment is like riding a bike in it...just be situationally aware and confident.

[htwoopup]

Forgot to add...My daughter (who just got out of grad school hence the thinking) said there are probably other kids in the intern program looking for the same thing. If she can hook up with them (thru the program) and rent together it opens up a whole different location/ type of apt/ type of building scenario. She also said I should let her know when and then she (and I of course) will poll our respective networks to see if anyone is subletting.

Also there are companies like leasebreak and sublet who find short term rentals.

And what Jorn said above, but if you/ she get closer on when/what feel free to take offline at any time.

[j44ke]

Roommates are a fact of life for most people under 40 in NYC.

[NYCfixie]

My daughter is considering doing a 6-week research internship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital in midtown Manhattan. She needs to find her own place to live and my advice was to find something on aribnb or vrbo. It's been decades since I've been in NYC so I have no idea what neighbourhoods are like these days. She found some "affordable" (if one considers $2K/month affordable) places in Harlem and Morningside Heights. Is there any borough in Manhattan that should be avoided? Any insights into the Manhattan rental market would be greatly appreciated.

I grew up a few blocks from MSK on York Avenue (and have family who have worked in area hospitals) so...
- Ask MSK if they have any short-term housing
- Ask Cornell Medical School if they have short-term medical student housing that might be available (would be in the lower 70s by York Ave).
- Ask Hospital for Special Surgery if she can stay in one of the long-term rentals for families who have patients at HSS or New York Presbyterian (formerly New York Hospital) in the Bellaire building (71st between York and the East River). https://www.hss.edu/patient-amenities.asp


NYP (68th to 70th), HSS (70th to 72nd), MSK (67th to 68th), and Weill Cornell Medical School (69th to 70th ) are all affiliated in some way so I am sure her possible future program director can help with one of the above options.