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TLDR: DINKs in Astoria wondering if it’s foolish to give up low rent apartment for a change of scenery / is there even a better life out there or is this as good as it gets?

Extended: I (35F) have lived in Astoria for 14 years, my now husband (37M) has been here for 7. We are not having kids, but would really like to have 1-2 dogs in the future. All of our friends moved out of NYC during the pandemic so we have zero friends here and for anything social we travel to where our friends are (no one with kids comes to visit us anymore). We both work full time in Midtown and a large part of why we’re here is for our careers – we’ve both finally started to get to where we want to be financially ($300k combined) and don’t think we could make this much anywhere else.

Pros: We have a 2 bed/1 bath apartment in a townhouse where they’ve never raised the rent from $2400/month so we have been able to save and also spend on travel to visit our friends often. We are right off of a Main Street with restaurants and shops that we love. We love the cultural aspect of the area – so many different and interesting people. Our commute’s are 30 min to Midtown.

Cons: We are exhausted. I am harassed in some capacity at least weekly on my commute. We don’t have a dishwasher nor laundry in our building. We aren’t allowed to have pets. We’ve run out of space so are renting a storage unit. Visually I feel as though I am dying to see more greenery and less concrete.

Seems like I need life advice. Am I being ungrateful or is there something better out there? Has anyone had this experience and can share the decisions you made?