Why I moved to NYC from Ohio: I wanted to feed my passion for karaoke, art, and vintage décor
- Dylan left a $2,000 apartment for a $4,000 unit in a luxury building with amenities
“I scrolled through StreetEasy trying to find a moderately sized apartment that had a closet big enough to fit my jacket collection,” Dylan Rea said.
When Ohio-native Dylan Rea was apartment hunting in New York City, he didn’t use an agent. Instead, thanks to “divine intervention” in the form of a friend renting out her apartment, he landed in a luxury building in Murray Hill. His life is packed with friends, art, and shopping for vintage goods. Here’s Dylan’s story as told to Kelly Kreth.
I was born in Marysville, Ohio, a very small town kind of near Columbus. Most recently, I lived by myself in a one-bedroom apartment for $2,000 a month in Columbus in a complex called The Reach.
I had worked extremely hard in school, earned my master’s degree, and landed a job in consulting, so having my own place felt like a real milestone. I’m a product design lead at a financial consulting firm, designing applications and software for financial markets and trading platforms that are used across the globe.
[Editor's note: Brick Underground's series The Newcomers features first-person accounts about why a renter or buyer decided to take a chance on NYC.]
My apartment had in-unit laundry, a dishwasher, and plenty of space, and the complex had parking, a gym, pool, and movie theater. I loved how comfortable and easy it was to live there. My passion is decorating interiors, so the space was cute, quirky, and fun—and it had a closet so big it probably could have been listed on Zillow as a junior one bedroom.
Columbus is a great city and somewhat underrated. People are friendly, it’s clean, and the food scene is surprisingly strong.
I’m obsessed with vintage shopping, so I usually spent weekends hunting around thrift stores for clothes and décor with my best friend. I also liked going out with friends for drinks and exploring Columbus’s nightlife scene.
But I had a feeling that I had started to outgrow my environment. I felt uninspired. I had lots of friends and family was close by, but I felt like New York City had my heart.
Why he decided to move
When I turned 30, I visited a friend in Hoboken, NJ, for a weekend that started with an insane flood and ended with us walking home with our pinkies interlocked as I promised her—after five years of her begging me—that I’d move to the area within a year.
Doing so was honestly terrifying. In August 2024, I sold my car and had one final meltdown about whether I had ruined my life. Then I bought a one-way, first-class ticket to New Jersey. When I stepped onto that airplane, it felt like something in me shifted. It felt like everything fell into place.
I moved into a three-bedroom apartment with my friend—one bedroom for me, for her, and one dedicated to our shoes and clothes. The rent was $3,000, which we split evenly.
Together we enjoyed nightly Love Island marathons, chaotic Sunday fundays, and pounds of sushi and Indian food. About eight months later, I was ready to be on my own in the city.
Luckily, I was looking for my new place in March, so the competition wasn’t nearly as fierce as what I’ve heard from friends. Still, the search was different compared to Ohio, where you can tour an apartment, think about it for a few days, journal about the decision, come back the next weekend—and there’s still a very good chance the apartment will be waiting for you.
In New York, I had to leave work at 1 p.m. to rush across the city to see an apartment I had found that very morning. I was convinced that during my subway ride someone would sign the lease and it would already be gone by the time I arrived.
Wanted: A place big enough for his jacket collection
Initially I didn’t focus on a specific area. I didn’t use a real estate agent—just divine intervention. Rent was something I was stricter about. I had a maximum budget of $4,000, which felt like a huge jump from my previous rent. I searched for about six weeks.
I scrolled through StreetEasy trying to find a moderately sized apartment that had a closet big enough to fit my jacket collection. I saw about four places, including one near the Metropolitan Museum of Art that would have fulfilled every Gossip Girl fantasy I had as a teenager.
Then magic happened! A friend who owns a unit in Murray Hill decided to move to New Jersey. I had never seen the place but after a 10-minute walkthrough I was completely hooked. By the end of March I was packed and ready to move in.
What he loves about his new apartment
I now live in a one bedroom in Murray Hill, on the site of what used to be the East Side Airlines Terminal building. People used to check their luggage here and then take buses through the Midtown Tunnel to one of the local airports. My rent is $4,000 a month.
It has lots of amenities, with the nicest neighbors and staff I’ve ever met. The apartment has a washer, dryer, and dishwasher, which feels like winning the New York City apartment lottery.
How he feels about his new neighborhood
Murray Hill is peaceful. It’s close to the water and a 10-minute walk from Grand Central Terminal, which makes getting anywhere incredibly easy.
I always say Hoboken felt like a hug, and the first step into Manhattan felt like a slap in the face—but one I kind of enjoy, in a toxic-sort of way.
My typical routine involves an iced matcha, heated Pilates, and trips to some pretty good restaurants around the area.
Ordering food in New York is an experience. I’ll research restaurants on TikTok, order something that everyone says is amazing, decide I deserve a sweet treat, and then somehow completely black out as a box of buttercream pastries mysteriously disappears in front of me. The dessert selection in this city is unlike anything else I’ve experienced before.
I’m still so new to the city that I haven’t stopped romanticizing it yet. If I had to pick one thing I disliked, it would definitely be the winter we just endured.
Making friends has been surprisingly easy. I joined a gay sports league, already knew quite a few people from college who live here, and have met some new friends—all within a pretty short amount of time.
My life is packed full of karaoke, art and vintage shop crawls, and Thursdays at a gay dodgeball league—thank you BARS (Big Apple Rec Sports).
Dating as a gay man in New York is an adventure. I’m having to relearn how to date here—the community is so confident and self-assured that the New York gay truly feels like its own iconic specimen, one I’ve had the fortune of getting to know.
I don’t see myself leaving NYC, in fact I just renewed with a two-year lease.
If everything goes according to plan, I’ll be 112 years old, still hanging out peacefully in a quaint little jazz bar in the West Village with a glass of red wine in my hand, thanking God that I trusted myself enough to jump full force into a new life.
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