Alaina's Journey from her 80-square-foot Micro-Studio to the West Village

Alaina and I discussed her journey from a small town in Missouri to a micro-apartment the size of a parking lot in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan amid soaring rent prices

If you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere—but for Gen Zers, the journey isn’t as well-defined as many think. Alaina Randazzo, 26, a podcaster and digital creator, moved from a small town in Missouri to an 80-square-foot apartment in Hell's Kitchen. Yes, you read that correctly—an apartment the size of a parking spot—with her furry friend Pimento. She managed to secure a Midwest price for her micro-sized apartment in Manhattan, paying just $650 a month.

For a self-starter like Randazzo, moving to the city after graduation comes with a lot of risks and rewards (mostly risks). As of June 2024, the average rent in New York stood at about $3,789 per month, which is 150% higher than the national average rent price of $1,518 per month.

Credit: Alaina Randazzo

More of our generation is choosing to stay at home with their parents due to rent increases. A January 2024 survey by Intuit Credit Karma found that 31% of Gen Zers live with their parents or family because they can't afford to buy or rent their place.

When first looking for places in New York, her first spot was a high-rise sublet at The Victory on 10th Avenue and West 41st Street. 

“I moved into a luxury building when I first came here because that's what New York kind of sells you on, like the doorman, who, by the way, didn’t hold the door for me,” Randazzo said.

But after about a year there, she didn’t think the glamour suited her lifestyle. That’s when she found the micro-studio in Hell’s Kitchen. It may surprise some that a lot of people were touring it with her too.

Randazzo was making about $4,000 a month while saving in her micro-apartment and paying $650 a month for rent. She made the best of her situation and was able to save approximately $25,000 during her time in the micro-studio, which aided her move to a two-bedroom apartment in the West Village, where she lives now.

“I also think our generation has a major spending issue, and I’m the worst saver,” Randazzo said.

In her two-bedroom in the West Village, her rent is about $1,800, which she still calls a fair price for Manhattan.

Whether Gen Z has an issue with discretionary expenses is another conversation. I will say that all Americans renting right now, specifically those in New York, are more rent-burdened than ever before.

A record-high 22.4 million renter households spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent and utilities, the threshold determining whether a household is cost-burdened, according to a 2024 report by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

“Where's your money to invest? Where's your money to go out with your friends?” she exclaimed.

Despite repeated mornings of waking up and hitting her head on the ceiling in the micro-studio, she made the best of it. Randazzo not only saved thousands of dollars, but she also made those four corners her home. By hosting wine nights and adding her own décor, Pimento and Alaina were able to enjoy a full year’s lease in Hell's Kitchen. But for the sake of her mental health, and Pimento’s, she had to leave.

“You can only do that space for so long until you give up so many things with it; you start to go a little stir-crazy,” Randazzo said.

Randazzo was living in Los Angeles before moving to New York and said the pivot to making it here was a lot more difficult than she had anticipated, especially for those early in their careers.

“When you are trying to make it, at some point, you just have to ask yourself, am I going to keep doing this, or what am I making sacrifices for?” she said.

With an amplified morning routine, more space, and a clearer mind, her situation is more comfortable now. The experience reflects a relatable journey for our generation and what it takes to “make it.” Saving money, navigating work-life balance, and finding fulfillment in passion projects have kept Randazzo going throughout the years.

“At my old job, I'd go home on my lunch breaks and edit my podcast videos to do what I could with the time I had,” she said.

While keeping her passion projects like her podcast alive, Randazzo noted that the power of AI and the internet is an accessible tool for our generation to make a living. However, she worries about the future of our generation and wishes there were easier outlets to become a self-starter like our parents.

“You see everyone nowadays saying, ‘Here's how you can have followers,’ ‘Here's how you can get money.’ That's all great, but it's kind of sad to me that people think the only escape is social media,” she said.

Randazzo’s best advice for becoming a self-starter and making it in the city is simple: be prepared to spend money, keep your passions alive, and know that the silver lining is that it will all pay off eventually.

“You just might not know how yet, but just keep doing that thing that makes you passionate and it'll work out,” she said.