Where to look for a room...

CRAIGSLIST is the answer everybody gave me. The "secret" tool for the wannabe New Yorker and general globeetrotter. Millions and millions of listings. Probably thousands of chances a day to find your dream accomodation. What a dirty lie! I came here believing that the house search will be hard and quite some work but what I had to face was ridiculous and really disappointing. Apparently is the house market in New York so tight that even hostels are booked out weeks in advance. I actually met some students planning to stay the entire semester in a hostel. When craigslist says it is a private listing, there is a 50% chance that actually you are talking to a broker. I f you meet him, the original flat is "just rented a minute ago". But guess what. For a tiny fee of 2000 $ he can provide you with an even better apartment or room. If you are "lucky" to mail the other 50 %, three fourths will never answer. The remainder actually gives you the chance to come and see the apartment in what is called an open house. These events only miss professional beer sellers and hot sausages! You will meet around 50 people all looking at the room. I learned fast that it is a stupid idea to say that you stay for only 4 months. But even if you are pretending to stay 25 years, there are other people waving with thousands of dollars (no joke!!!) just to get the apartment. Well, if those crazy Bill's and Lisa's are not there, the landlord requires an american guaranto who earns 80 times a months rent! Think about that! Here a short calculation:

You want to rent a studio (1 room) in Manhattan, old style and torn down: 2,200 $ a month
A years rent would be 26,400 $; 80 times a months rent would be 176,000 $ a year.

Besides me in 20 years, I know nobody who owns that money and has an american passport. (Trace, do you earn that money by any chance???)

Well, there is another categorie of landlords. The ones living in the apartment themselves. On average, we are talking about a 50 year old woman with 4 1/2 cats. I saw rooms where the bed was used as a cat toilet, rooms where cats were born and died and rooms where the old woman was not distinguishable from her cats. Purrrrrrrrr - Cats are ok??? Nope! Cats are fine, but I don't want to sleep in their toilet!

So how am I ever supposed to find an apartment?????