The subways in New York help the common case - minimizing how much is needed to spend on housing, while being well-connected to Manhattan. This is how people ca

The subways in New York help the common case - minimizing how much is needed to spend on housing, while being well-connected to Manhattan. This is how people can live in a relatively cheap borough like Queens, and still have 15-35 minute commute to their job. There's also a massive amount of rental apartment stock at any time. This means that you have the liquidity to make any tradeoffs necessary, by balancing your budget, commute distance, number of roommates, and the amount of space you need. New York is also connected to several public transit systems (NJTransit, Metro North, PATH), so you can often go way cheaper, by leaving the city bounds itself. It's not all sunshine and roses, though. Rent is going up in a lot of the previously-cheap neighborhoods in Brooklyn. This hasn't really affected me, but my sister has been priced out of multiple apartments in the 5 years she has lived in the city.