Finding summer housing in NYC can be pretty stressful, especially if you are not in town ahead of time, as is often the case for folks coming for a summer internship. I decided to document my thought process and list some some resources I found helpful when I was in this situation, so I can point people to this post.

First, here are the main types of housing, ordered by preference in my opinion. A general strategy would be to explore these types in parallel, but only commit to a type of housing if better ones are not working out and you are out of time or options. There are some tradeoffs in terms of time, reliability and price, so obviously this will depend on your personal situation and budget. Luckily some interns receive a decent salary or housing stipend, which can allow them to skip some hassle if they are willing to pay the price. See after for details links and recommendations for specific types of housing.

Main types of housing, roughly ordered by preference:

  1. Best case: find a sublet through your alum network, friends or family. Always good to try.
  2. Labor intensive, unreliable, but fair price: find a sublet on apps, mailing lists, or other groups.
  3. Easy, reliable, but expensive: use university summer housing or generic student housing.
  4. Quite easy, somewhat reliable, but even more expensive: furnished rentals like Airbnb and other specialized platforms like June.

Sublets

This is the cheaper option, but it can be a pain if you are not in town, since it’s hard to trust listings and visit places. The main issue with summer housing is that you’re looking for a short term lease with pretty specific dates, so you typically can’t rely on regular apartment sources like StreatEasy. Ideally you can find someone in your network who has a sublet. Otherwise, here are places to try:

  • LeaseBreak has pretty legit options for short term leases, but they often show up pretty last minute
  • Zillow has some rooms, but they are quite spammed by furnished rentals from June and others
  • SpareRoom was similar to Zillow
  • Haven’t tried Roomi
  • Roomster seems like a scan, need to pay to read messages
  • Facebook Marketplace
  • Listings Project has a curated newsletter
  • If you are willing to deal with Craigslist, go for it

University summer housing or generic student housing

This was a big discovery for me, but many universities offer housing while their students are away for the summer! It’s much easier to trust an organization NYU than a random dude on Craigslist. However this convenience comes at a price: rooms are not cheap and pretty bare bones. There are different price ranges (from about 1.6k per month to 3k+ iirc) and various settings (from studio with kitchen to dorm with 5 roommates and no kitchen, forcing you to use the university’s meal plan and dining hall). Some have a pretty decent cancellation policy, maybe with a small fee, so if you’re anxious about housing I’d recommend getting one of these as a backup, and then keep looking for cheaper sublets.

Some examples of university housing:

There are also companies in a similar business, although usually more expensive:

Medium-term rentals

If you are okay with paying close to 3k per month for a room, or if you are out of options, then a backup plan is to go with a furnished rental that has long-ish term options:

  • Airbnb
  • June Homes
  • Aya
  • Sublet Spots

There are lots of other housing resources out there, but I listed the ones that worked best for me here. Good luck in your search!