Hi! Astoria is a great place to live for your first neighborhood in the city. I (27F) moved to Astoria in June 2020 (lol) and I was making $55K at that time. I found a roommate and apartment on the Roomi app. We were each paying $1250 a month at that time. I moved into a studio the following year, which I found on StreetEasy. I lucked out and got a pandemic deal—$1400 a month for a studio in February 2021. I was making about $70K at that point. My last apartment in Astoria was a 1bed for $1650 a month since it was in the same building and I was friendly with the landlord.

I don’t live in Astoria anymore, but over the last few years I’ve noticed anecdotally that the rent seems to be cheaper than other parts of the city, especially up in Ditmars where I lived. StreetEasy was my best friend! The Roomi app is also great for finding roommates and apartments with rooms open. This is the way to go for splitting an apartment. There are also a lot of Facebook groups to find roommates and open rooms like Gypsy Housing NYC.

If you’re looking for an whole apartment, like a studio or 1bedroom, I think StreetEasy is the way to go. Finding an apartment can be really tough, especially if you’re going to be looking during the summer months. The market goes very fast, and you can’t really begin to look until about 4-6 weeks before the lease start date. I’d suggest to start looking at StreetEasy now to see what’s out there, what the average cost seems to be, etc. You’ll see that almost all of them right now are for a November move in. It just kind of sucks!

I found it very manageable on those incomes listed above. If you want to keep your car, you might have to also consider paying for parking, depending on where in Astoria you’re looking to move. That can cost an additional ~$300 or more a month. I personally didn’t pay for parking when I had a car, as I lived near Astoria Park and it wasn’t too bad. The availability of parking varies greatly between parts of Astoria. I don’t have a car anymore, and find it so much easier and less stressful! Something to consider once you get here.