You’re right! But I need a one bedroom that’s not going to cost me over $3000 a month (all inclusive). Any recommendations?

I’m new to Connecticut and have been staying at my grandmother’s in Greenwich. I’ve been trying to find my own place. Greenwich prices are actually higher than Manhattan. So I was advised to look into Stamford as it’s much cheaper. The minimum 1 bedroom is at $2500 excluding monthly amenities, trash, parking, and pet fees! Looked into downtown, harbor point, and other places. If you have recommendations, please share!

That’s great, best of luck to you! Stamford is a really nice place, the rent is my only complaint. And wow $1,800 is out of my range personally, between my car payment, insurance and other bills $1,500 would be my upper limit to pay myself. Atleast while still trying to save and do an occasional outing.

I'm mostly looking on the outskirts of Stamford, and in communities like Norwalk and Greenwich, maybe as far as White Plains or Bedford Hills. I'm certainly not looking for a luxury apartment, and $1800 is a realistic target for my budget.

I'm excited to move to the community! I know it's going to be expensive, but fortunately I've saved up enough that month-to-month won't be a problem.

I live in harbor landing, it’s right across the water from harbor point. To give you some insight, when I first moved here the absolute cheapest I could find was a 350sqft studio for $1,250 on the tail end of lockdown. That same studio goes for almost $1,500 now. You can probably find a non luxury 1br for around $1,800 at best. Atleast in Stamford.

Don't feed the troll

I also commute to FiDi and I think the other user's schedule is very optimistic. It takes me about 1h45m. 10m to the train station by bus from Waterside, 1h train ride (people will reference the 50 minute train which is the shortest one but in the morning the trains are 55-65m), 15m subway to Fulton St., 5-10 walk to the office. And keep in mind you'll need a few minutes buffer/waiting in between every part of the trip. It takes a good 5 minutes just to get from the Metro North track to the subway track at Grand Central.

Can I ask where in Stamford you've been living? I'm moving there in a few months for a job that pays...substantially less than that. I've been looking at housing options and I'm certainly going to have to downsize, but I haven't been unable to find 1 br apartments totally outside my price range. A studio really isn't an option for me, so I'd get a roommate before I had a studio, but I think I'm going to be able to manage a 1 br.

The inequality is increasing if I had to guess, with some families still in homes they actually own outright but without the income that would now be required to back it up.

NYC has seen rents sky rocket as well. With a convenient train to get people into Midtown, and relative rents much cheaper in Stamford, a lot of NYC people are moving north and happily paying the prices

Are you a teenager? Or just that ignorant?

That aside you didn’t answer my question - what is communist about New York?

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Lol yea more like largest crime infested dumbass laws center in the world

> Additionally, the luxury apartments naturally attract high-performing, highly mobile, high-earners early in their career.

I get that for the 20-somethings, but how is it that even though more luxury buildings are built every year, the poverty rate is also going up every year? The public schools are now up to 57% FRPL the last time I checked. This is the only city I've ever seen that seems to be both gentrifying and getting poorer at the same time.

Communist NYC might be the dumbest thing I’ve read in years. What exactly do you find communist about the largest financial center in the world?

Yes that one item is a symptom, the rest are very real reasons behind the high rents.

My SO walks from harbor point to the train (10 minutes), train is about 50 minutes, and then takes the subway down to fidi (10 minutes), then walks a bit to his office. Door to door, takes him about 1.5 hours max, but usually closer to 1.25.

Smiling because this was me and my fiancé a year ago! We “escaped” to Stamford for a weekend from NYC. We now live in harbor point.

Agree with comments here that there’s really not many “things to do”. We came up Saturday, checked into our hotel, then went to Third Place. Would recommend! Great atmosphere, good beer and there’s usually a food truck or two. We walked down to the water (which is chilly this time of year), and grabbed another drink at a bar down by harbor point so we could take a look at some of the buildings.

For dinner, if you want to do something nicer, cafe silvium is great, but you’ll need to wait a while for a table. We “settled” for capital grille when they offered to make a table for us and had an excellent meal. Otherwise, you could just hit Bedford street and walk around exploring bars/food to see what you like! We usually do this when we have friends/family in town.

I will say, when it’s warmer, there’s much more to do. There’s activities downtown, and some restaurants will open outdoor areas to hang out at. The beer garden at shippan, for example, or The Wheel. Both on the water and a great place to day drink, eat and bring pets.

After living here about a year, I will say I recommend it! Many of the buildings are nice and nothing is ever too far away. Easy access to the city is a plus too via metro north.

How do you find the commute? Where in the city do you commute to and how long does it normally take?

We’ve found Jimmy McMillan’s Reddit account

I like Stamford, but it’s way too overpriced. If it was decently priced I’d rather stay here. But the fact that I’m making 80k+ and would have to live in a tiny studio on my own in order for me to afford it is ridiculous.

Ur not actually paying for stamford tho. Ur paying for nyc, and stamford is still awesome

>Then, just to top it off, there are thousands of illegal rentals in Stamford, where someone owns a house and rents out a room or each level, or every room on every level of a house that was meant for a single family.

You are describing a symptom of high cost of housing, not a cause of it.

Pretty straightforward answer

1. People want to live here.
2. The local government is controlled by people who do not want to increase housing.

As a result, the market understands it can price a premium on a limited quantity. New luxury apartments go up and they are reliably more expensive than the previous luxury apartments. They're more expensive because they're "newer," but meanwhile the old inventory isn't having any problems filling up. This is an indication that the slow increase in supply cannot meet the rapid increase in demand.

Why do people want to live in Stamford?

• Very low crime. Stamford is the safest city in New England (municipalities with more than 100k population measured by violent crime per captia, we're the lowest next to Newton, MA). For populated areas, crime negatively correlates with price of housing.
• Modern amenities. Stamford has long referenced that every single resident is within 10 minutes walk from a public park. This is unique to Stamford compared to other metro areas. Pets have become incredibly popular during the pandemic (and they were already popular before then) and having a place to walk your dog is on the high priority for people who want to move somewhere new.
• Access to employment opportunities. Stamford is the last express stop to New York City. You can take a 40 minute train from Stamford's transportation center directly to 125th and Grand Central. That's not true for other surrounding towns (such as Norwalk).
• Access to dating opportunities. UConn Stamford is relatively new but it has produced a "college crowd" of young people who are in the area. Additionally, the luxury apartments naturally attract high-performing, highly mobile, high-earners early in their career. As a result, most of the inventory from luxury apartments tends to be young people commuting to New York City. It creates a huge pool for dating options which is a kind of reinforcing pinwheel for the popularity of the area.

Which is to say, the only way you can decrease the demand is to change these things. Crime goes up, parks become dilapidated, employers leave the area, and therefore people leave the area. None of that is going to happen because the momentum is too strong. Businesses have moved here in droves (more people commute into Stamford than leave), their workforce is coming with them, that increase in residents results in more tax dollars to spend on services like parks maintenance and police.

The only option is to build more housing. Your local board actively fights against that. They complain there's too many cars, too many people, drought problems, and changes to the "character of the neighborhood." They're your problem.

Because investment companies own all the buildings. They raise rents consistently every year regardless of the market.

In addition, banks and investment companies bought up TONS of houses and just sit on them waiting for peak market, even then, tons of them don’t ever get put on the market. They’ve realized that holding the depreciated asset can be worth more than booking the loss by selling houses that have fallen into disrepair while being sat on.

I looked at a 2 family split in cove 8 years ago that popped into the market for a week, then they pulled it. I live near there now and last time I checked it was still empty.

Then, just to top it off, there are thousands of illegal rentals in Stamford, where someone owns a house and rents out a room or each level, or every room on every level of a house that was meant for a single family.

Artificial scarcity and proximity to job markets that pay VERY well… great recipe for endlessly appreciating property values.