How to get familiar with New York faster?

[SamanthaJ25]

Hello, guys. So I am preparing for my next big move - relocating to New York for a job opportunity. It's tough as I have two small kids - a lovely girl and a naughty (yeah, already) boy.. I am starting with my research before moving there and would like to ask for your help!

So far, I stumbled upon this interesting article with some useful tips on how to relocate with your family overseas easier. It seems that this new website measures life quality of neighborhoods and houses in New York, London, San Francisco, Chicago and Berlin.

I like the concept, it looks like a mix of Walkscore and Foursquare for me. I found some useful information there - bus shops near specific houses, bakeries, farmers markets and similar stuff. What i like the most is some cool maps with various demographic metrics, safety rates or internet speed across the city's neighborhoods that they do. For example, this predominant ethnicity map across neighborhoods of New York is pretty awesome!

Anyway, that's pretty much the only useful thing I found so far so if you could share with me any similar services/blog articles or even your personal experience while moving your family to a different country that would be amazing! :)

Can't wait to hear what you have to recommend me :)

Where is your office (St & Ave) plus how old are your kids? How big can you go with budget?

I work on 42nd and Madison and live in Hoboken, NJ. PreK 3 & 4 is free with after care from 730am - 6pm which is $800 a month and a 25% discount for the cheaper child if more than 1 in the aftercare program.

Plenty of other ace areas around the city and in the city (if you have the budget).

Thank you for the answer! My boy will be 4 in the summer and we just celebrated 1st birthday of our girl. I was told that I will be working on 8th Avenue in Manhattan... I am planning to go with anything up to 1500$, but I can adjust that if I can find something that's worth considering for a bit more as well.

$1500 a month isn't enough for rent. For 8th Ave somewhere in NJ is your best bet. I would be looking at Hoboken and Weehawken as they have prek4 for your son. If Hoboken you need at least $2500 a month for rent and in Weehawken it's about $2000 a month. Daycare for your DD here in Hoboken is $1400 a month so your total month spend on childcare would be $2000 for 730-530 or until 6pm for your son.

Make sure the numbers work for you because employers are famous for underpaying people coming into the country.

Thanks a lot for these tips! I'm just starting to look at the rental market in NYC and yeah it's expensive (surprise, surprise)....

Count on taxes of about 25% through the year. We pay about 10% tax but that's because we own our home and do a myriad of other things so get lots of deductions. If they are paying you less than $100k you need to have a serious chat with them covering part of your rent and topping up your health insurance with an expat plan.

Another thing is that you should look for a 1bed plus den or office. Rules here are that a room has to have a window and a wardrobe that's built in to be called a bedroom. Lots of people put their kids in the official bedroom and sleep in the den themselves. Get on Craigslist and see what you can find. In hoboken you can find some awesome places but you have to act very fast. Your employer will need to act as guarentor and should cover the broker fee. Costs to rent are one months rent, a months rent for the deposit and one months rent for the broker fee.

In an ad if you see hoboken west it isn't hoboken normally. They are VERY strict about school districts and you must be in hoboken to go to hoboken schools. In weehawken Woodrow Wilson school is very good and has a prek 4 program that your son should qualify for. Check the cut off. Hoboken is sept or oct 1st.

The advantage of hoboken is that you really do not need a car and there is so much to do. The playgrounds are awesome and you will meet so many people from all over the world.