A city profile in three lines
New York is the most expensive monthly city in this series and, thanks to two renter laws, no longer the most expensive landing relative to its rent. The planner's recorded averages, in US dollars: a shared room at $1,820 a month, a studio at $4,395, utilities at $233. The deposit is capped by state law at one month's rent, so the shared-room stack is deposit $1,820 plus first month $1,820 plus utilities $233: $3,873 to land. The studio stack is $9,023, a number that explains why the shared room is the default student product in this city.
The broker fee that is no longer yours to pay
Older New York guides warn students about a broker fee of a month's rent or more arriving at signing. Since June 2025 the FARE Act has barred landlords from passing a broker's fee to the tenant when the broker works for the landlord, which removes what used to be the nastiest surprise in the New York landing. If a listing still tries to charge you one, that is a fact worth knowing before you wire anything, and it is exactly the kind of line this series exists to make visible.
What the $3,873 leaves out
Housing only, as throughout the series: the planner records rent, deposit and utilities for its 200 cities, and groceries, transit and insurance are your own entries. New York's omissions bite harder than most (a monthly transit pass and first grocery run in Manhattan prices are real money), so treat $3,873 as the floor under a first month that will cost more, and note the ratio that matters for comparing cities: the landing is about 2.1 months of shared rent, the lightest multiple in this series alongside Melbourne.
Run the numbers before you sign anything
The Landing Cash Planner prices New York at a one-month deposit by default and lets you compare it against Boston or Chicago in the same sitting. Questions about how the figures are recorded route through the contact page.