Manhattan may be home to the Empire State Building, Wall Street and the ferry to the Statue of Liberty, but it isn’t home for the majority of New Yorkers. Only about 1.6 million of the 8.4 million city’s residents reside on Manhattan Island—although many of them work in Manhattan.
The other 6.8 million live in four boroughs that are home to neighborhoods that resemble Manhattan’s busiest blocks to others that resemble the nearby suburbs. Houses, of the standalone, duplex and row variety also become much more common.
Renting is typically more common in New York City than buying outright, even for those residents who can afford to spare a few million for an apartment. Zillow lists New York City’s median rent at $2,600 monthly.
Brooklyn Charm Comes at a Cost
Brooklyn’s synonymous with hipsters to many outside the city, but it’s so much more than the popular and increasingly expensive Williamsburg, where the median rent for a one-bedroom apartment is around $3,000. Brooklyn is home to Coney Island, Fort Hamilton, Sheepshead Bay and plenty of other neighborhoods that retain more than a hint of old-school Brooklyn charm.
Brooklynites are residents of New York’s most populous borough (and the most populous county in New York State). Originally an independent city, Brooklyn (along with Queens and Staten Island) became a part of New York City in the late 19th century. The borough is home to many different communities, including playing host to one of New York City’s Chinatowns along 8th Avenue, Ukrainian and Russian immigrants in Coney Island and Sea Brite and many others.
Housing costs tend to generally be highest in the neighborhoods closest to Manhattan, where many New Yorkers commute to on a daily basis for work or school. It’s particularly convenient for people who commute to Manhattan for work. (This trend also carries over to other boroughs!) In some of these neighborhoods, the rent is more expensive than adjacent Manhattan ones. These neighborhoods are home to several subway lines, making them a quick train ride away to a job in Manhattan. Housing varies from impressive brownstones to tiny apartments. Zillow’s median rent of a rental is $2,600 a month in Brooklyn.
Queens; City, Suburb and Farm in One
Queens shares the Western half of island with Brooklyn. It’s home to two airports, the New York Hall of Science and the New York Mets. Queens is the most diverse borough in terms of its cultures, neighborhoods and economy.
Settled between Manhattan, Brooklyn and Long Island, a general trend emerges. The neighborhoods closest to Manhattan, like Long Island City and Astoria are closer what people expect from a New York City neighborhood, a high-density locale with no shortage of public transportation. They have also gone through significant demographic shifts in recent years. Astoria was well known for its Greek community, some of whose members still run businesses in the neighborhood. Long Island City was a previously more industrial neighborhood that is slowly becoming both more residential. These two neighborhoods are increasingly popular with young professionals looking for inexpensive rent for the area and a shorter commute into nearby Manhattan. With borough-wide median rent of $2,000 according to Zillow and the upcoming completion of the 7-subway line extension into the West Side of Manhattan, Queens can be an attractive option for commuters who find Brooklyn just a bit to expensive.
As you get closer to Long Island, neighborhoods become more suburban, with houses laid out in a more sprawl style. Some more affluent neighborhoods like Forest Hills and Douglaston look like little suburbs in the city. Queens is also home to the New York City farm, the Queens County Farm Museum, which is still a working farm, whose produce and honey is available at the farm or the Union Square Greenmarket in Manhattan.
The Bronx: Welcome to the Mainland
The Bronx is the only borough mostly on the American mainland. Back in the colonial era, it was among the northernmost territory of the Netherlands’ short-lived New Amsterdam colony. This legacy lives on today in Van Cortlandt Park, named for the city’s first native-born mayor Stephanus van Cortlandt, a member of a then-prominent Dutch family.
Like, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, the Bronx also has a mix of neighborhoods, from the South Bronx, a birthplace of hip-hop culture to neighborhoods that begin to resemble nearby Westchester like North Riverdale. It also has its own Little Italy in the form of Arthur Avenue. It’s also home to several New York City landmarks including the New York Botanical Garden, the Bronx Zoo and Yankee Stadium. Several universities, including Fordham University, Lehman College and the ironically named Manhattan College are all in The Bronx, making the borough a convenient option for anyone who works in these locations. All three of the MTA’s Metro-North lines run through The Bronx, providing a speedy alternative to the subway lines that reach their northern final stop there. A neighborhood with a Metro North stop may provide a quicker commute than some northern Manhattan neighborhoods with only a subway or bus line, making it a potential option or anyone who works by the Manhattan stops in East Harlem or near Grand Central Terminal in Midtown East.
As with all boroughs the rents vary by neighborhood, but it has the lowest median rent within New York City limits at $1,450 a month, partly due to the fact that most people who move to New York look to Manhattan, Brooklyn or increasingly Queens.
Staten Island’s Not Forgotten Here
Staten Island is sometimes called “the forgotten borough” by residents, typically in relation to the city’s government. Geographically closer to New Jersey than Manhattan, Staten Island has more of an suburbanized feel overall and a population under 500,000, making it the least populated borough.
Like its fellow boroughs, the neighborhoods of this island are a mix of cultures from the Little Sri Lanka in Tompkinsville to the many Italian-American communities on the island. It is also famous for its neighborhoods of Victorian houses. It is also the only borough with free transportation to Manhattan in the form of the Staten Island ferry, whose Manhattan terminus drops off commuters in a terminal adjacent to the subway for easy access to Manhattan and Brooklyn. It can also be a cost-effective move. A 2014 article in The New York Times quotes a one-bedroom apartment in St. George, a neighborhood near the Staten Island ferry, would be around $1,400 to $1,800.
However, public transportation is different on this island due to a lack of subways, with buses and cars being the primary methods of getting around and to work inside and outside the southernmost borough. Zillow lists the median rent is $1,700 a month due in part to the lower demand, much like the Bronx.
Of Bridges and Tunnels
While not an official part of New York City, New Jersey’s is sometimes referred as the sixth borough. Jersey City has long been a commuter town popular with people who work in the city because it is a short ride on the PATH train or NJ Transit bus ride away. Hoboken is immediately south of Jersey City and offers many of the same benefits. Living in either town may be a preferable alternative to certain neighborhoods four official boroughs of New York City, since the commute could be shorter, particularly for people who work in Lower Manhattan and the southern half of Midtown. Median rent is $2,000 for Jersey City and $2,800 for Hoboken according to Zillow.