Degrees in Hand, Manhattanites Making Move to Old Bedrooms

Jonathan Miller, who at 24 is an analyst for the investment bank Collins Stewart, says he always thought of himself as independent.“I did all my own stuff in college,” the New York native said. “I wasn’t one of those kids that needed mom and dad to hold my hand.”That didn’t stop him from asking for his old room back.When Mr. Miller graduated from Columbia College last year, he decided to move in with his parents on the Lower East Side, sacrificing some privacy for the comforts of a familiar bedroom and the benefits of paying no rent.As New Yorkers who grew up in Manhattan graduate from elite colleges and return to the city to launch their careers, more of them are realizing they can either move into a cramped walk-up with a high price tag in a borough outside Manhattan, or overcome their qualms and move back in with their parents. While much has been made of neighborhoods such as Williamsburg in Brooklyn attracting recent college graduates, many of these former students want to be in Manhattan.According to consumer research company twentysomething.org, about 65% of young adults plan to move home for some time following college graduation, and that number rises to 70% in places such as New York, where rents are so high, the president of the company, David Morrison, said.Daniel de Zeeuw graduated from Amherst last year and moved back into his family’s rent-controlled Lower East Side apartment in June. The 22-year-old is occupying a split bedroom with his younger sister.“If I get a job that doesn’t pay a lot and I have to pay back my college loans, I might stay as long as I’m welcome and I can stand it,” he said.A real estate broker who finds apartments for young adults, Adina Azarian, said she has had several young New Yorkers contact her about apartments this summer before deciding to stay with their parents when they realized the price of living in Manhattan.“There’s pretty much an aversion to the boroughs if you’re born and raised in Manhattan, and they’re thinking unrealistically about what’s out there,” Ms. Azarian, the owner of Adina Equities, said.According to Citi Habitats, the average monthly rent for a studio apartment in Manhattan was $1,965 in June; a one-bedroom was $2,668, and a two-bedroom was $3,869. The cheapest rents are in Washington Heights, with a studio averaging $1,175 a month and a one-bedroom running $1,235 a month.None of the nine graduates contacted for this article contribute financially to their parents while living at home.Mr. Miller, who has been living with his parents for 14 months, said he likes his childhood home partly because of the “amenities,” including a cleaning lady, although the situation does take a toll on his social life. He said he has mastered the technique of gradually letting the women he dates know that he lives with his parents.“The only goal is to divert them away from where you live,” he said. “If the fact that I live with my parents is the first thing you know about me, you think, ‘Oh, George Costanza.’ If you know all the other details about me, you think, ‘Oh, this kid is just trying to save a couple of bucks.'”Mr. Miller is moving out in a month to an apartment a few blocks away that his family inherited from his grandfather.A University of Michigan graduate, Zara Zuckerman, 22, said she will save for a year while working as a teaching assistant at a preschool. “I’m close with my parents and they don’t really cramp my style,” she said. “I don’t have to feel weird about bringing people over.”One deciding factor was Ms. Zuckerman’s goal of staying in Manhattan. “It’s kind of hard to move out once you’ve been there for a while,” she said. “If rent was significantly lower I would probably get my own place, because I’ve become used to living on my own, but it would have to be pretty low.”Kara Kaufman, 22, moved back into her mother’s apartment on the Upper West Side after graduating from Harvard in June. Her mother, an administrator at a private school, had been subletting her room to a friend until Ms. Kaufman showed up. She plans to stay for a year, saving up money and looking for a job in theater production. Ms. Kaufman also shares a preference for Manhattan, but cannot yet afford to live in it.Parents say they often rejoice in having their children living at home following four years away at school. Joy Blugh, a mother of two, said seeing her son move out on his own after returning to her home for a year is bittersweet.“You’re happy that he wants to be independent and so on, but at the same time you’re not sure that he has all the tools together yet to make it,” she said. Her husband wanted their son to stay and save up more money for graduate school, but Ms. Blugh said she thought it was more important for him to take risks and be independent.Her son, Georgetown graduate Shaun Blugh, 23, moved to a midtown apartment with three roommates after a year in his parents’ Flatbush townhouse. Ms. Blugh said she would sometimes call to check up on him while he was out with friends, even at 3 a.m., but that he was free to do what he wanted.Ms. Blugh said her door is always open, and that her son has returned home almost every day since moving out.Ms. Kaufman, who says most of her friends from Hunter High School are living at home for the time being, said the situation is temporary for them all.“I would be surprised if after a year or two years everyone wasn’t out on their own,” she said.

Degrees in Hand, Manhattanites Making Move to Old Bedrooms

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