{"id":319965,"date":"2026-08-13T00:56:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:56:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319965\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T00:56:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T00:56:08","slug":"woman-gives-tour-of-her-650-new-york-micro-apartment-and-people-were-unprepared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319965\/","title":{"rendered":"Woman gives tour of her $650 New York micro apartment and people were unprepared"},"content":{"rendered":"

They say New York City<\/a> is the City of Dreams. Young people all over the world flock to the city when they\u2019re ready to start chasing after their biggest ambitions. If you have a passion for theater, television, or the arts, there\u2019s no better place to be. Want to become a successful and prestigious stock broker, lawyer, or investment banker? It\u2019s all New York<\/a>, baby. It\u2019s a city of immense opportunity and tough competition, but that\u2019s what makes it full of life and culture<\/a> for those who choose to live there.<\/p>\n

But all of that doesn\u2019t come cheap. The average rent in New York for even just a small, studio apartment is now over $4,000 per month. That buys you less than 500 square feet. And, even though it seems like you\u2019re really pinching pennies by living somewhere so cramped, that price tag is enormous! Even if you account for the higher-than-average salaries in New York.<\/p>\n

Most young people just getting started in their careers can\u2019t afford that. Not to mention, the competition for good-quality apartments<\/a> in New York is cutthroat. Still, people are desperate to live there by any means necessary, which has given rise to some really fascinating (and, in some cases, slightly horrifying) micro apartments.<\/p>\n

Meet the woman behind the viral apartment<\/p>\n

In 2022, one woman went viral for showing off her New York micro apartment. It clocks in at just 80 square feet and cost her, at the time, a meager $650 per month.<\/p>\n

YouTuber Caleb Simpson interviewed the woman, Alaina, for his channel that specializes in featuring interesting and unique living spaces. Alaina\u2019s apartment definitely qualifies, though technically the square footage is 80\u00d7150, because she\u2019s including the vertical space. Every square inch counts!<\/p>\n

\u201cSo really it just feels like a walk-in closet,\u201d Simpson remarks upon entering through the front door.<\/p>\n

Alaina shows Simpson around the apartment, which includes a tiny living room slash kitchen area with a mini-fridge, a small sink, and a small stove and microwave. In the main living area, she\u2019s placed a fold-out sofa of sorts. Alaina\u2019s makeup and pantry foods are all crammed into one small cabinet.<\/p>\n

From there\u2026well, there\u2019s not much left to see. But Alaina and Simpson check out the loft, which holds Alaina\u2019s bed and a little extra storage in the form of hooks where she hangs her bags and purses.<\/p>\n

The apartment has no windows. There is a storage cupboard under the stairs, but it\u2019s hard to access.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I want to get something out, something else has to move,\u201d Alaina says.<\/p>\n

As far as a bathroom, Alaina is lucky enough to have her very own private bathroom complete with shower! Many New York micro apartments feature communal or shared bathrooms, so the private bath is a plus for this tiny space. However, hers is located separate from her apartment, down the hall. And, you might be surprised to hear, it\u2019s extremely tiny.<\/p>\n

Alaina admits she previously lived in a \u201cluxury\u201d apartment that cost over $3,000 per month, but she wanted to free up money<\/a> to travel, which prompted her to downgrade.<\/p>\n

Watch the whole tour here:<\/p>\n

Alaina says her tiny apartment was a \u201chot commodity\u201d when she signed the lease, beating out tons of other prospective renters.<\/p>\n

The internet had a lot to say about it<\/p>\n

Commenters on the video, which has a staggering 24 million views, were more or less horrified at the conditions that New Yorkers were competing over:<\/p>\n

\u201cFiretrap . No exits , no windows with fresh air . Cooking with no air flow . Crazy this is even happening\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t even breathe looking at this tiny apartment\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018In a van, down by the river\u2019 has never sounded better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNYC should be ashamed and embarrassed to relegate people to live in this kind of space. Not only does it look uncomfortable \/ unhealty but It looks extremely dangerous. NYC should do better in providing affordable housing with decent square footage.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s cool and scrappy that Alaina makes the pint-sized apartment work for her as she pursues her dream of living in New York City. We might find it claustrophobic, but the fact that multiple renters were fighting over this space really says a lot about the way our culture is moving.<\/p>\n

Why she\u2019s not chasing the picket fence<\/p>\n

Younger millennials and Gen Z are sick of chasing after the American Dream of the single-family home with a white picket fence and a golden retriever.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hopelessly out of reach for many of them anyway due to skyrocketing housing prices and stagnant wages. So, they can work their fingers to the bone with multiple jobs and maybe afford a slightly better apartment, but still not be able to save enough for the future, or they could actually enjoy their life with the money they do have.<\/p>\n

NBC News<\/a> writes, \u201cSeveral years out of Covid lockdowns, younger Americans\u2019 outlays on things like travel, recreation and dining out have been outpacing their older peers\u2019 even as the economy slows. As of last summer, the average Gen Zer or millennial was dropping over $400 a month on nonessentials, compared to about $250 for Gen Xers and less than $200 for baby boomers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In another YouTube interview, Alaina admits to spending big money on her monthly gym membership: over $300 per month, to be exact. Commenters chastised her for having her priorities mixed up, but honestly, there\u2019s nothing backwards at all about wanting to relax at your gym\u2019s spa after a long day of work, or travel to the far ends of the world, versus spending all of your money on an OK-but-still-crappy apartment.<\/p>\n

In an update in the YouTube video\u2019s caption, Simpson writes that Alaina chose not to renew her lease in the micro apartment after filming. But that doesn\u2019t mean she regrets her stay.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an adventure,\u201d Alaina says. \u201cPeople need a lot less than they think they need.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They say New York City is the City of Dreams. Young people all over the world flock to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319966,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[98016,6722,7739,26210,17,3365,235,43274,2907,120613,13347,9,24,55,54,56,63,120614,78342,6162],"class_list":["post-319965","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-popular_source-pageview","tag-apartments","tag-budget","tag-budgeting","tag-culture","tag-economy","tag-gen-z","tag-homeownership","tag-housing","tag-micro-apartment","tag-millennials","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-tiny-apartments","tag-tiny-homes","tag-viral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319965"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319965\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}