Carmine Galasso/The Record/MCT

Shay Shaked, a recent N.J.I.T. graduate, lives with two roommates in Newark, New Jersey, because living on his own was too expensive. And, he didn't want to live in the suburbs.

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- It's college graduation season, and twentysomethings are on the move.

Whether they're headed to jobs or graduate school, if they're staying in the area around New York City, they are likely to face some compromises on housing.

The lucky ones have good jobs and the wherewithal to rent apartments. But to afford a place in one of the priciest housing markets in the nation, they might have to live with roommates or accept a longer commute than they'd like.

"Finding an affordable one-bedroom is really difficult," said Sunny Kancherla, founder of a Newark, N.J.-based apartment-hunting Web site called GardenStateApartments.com. In North Jersey, one-bedroom apartments generally start at $800 to $1,200, he said.

Many new grads who can't afford that will find themselves back at home, pushing aside the stuffed animals on their old beds or taking up residence in the basement.

"Given where we are in the country, one of the most expensive housing markets, more and more young people are graduating, they're getting jobs, but living at home because they can't afford to be on their own," said Richard White, head of the career office at Rutgers University.

New grads who don't want to return to Mom's Hotel have to be flexible to get living arrangements they can afford.

Constance Coleman, 23, is graduating from William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., with a degree in marketing and has a job lined up at Pearson, the Upper Saddle River, N.J.-based publishing company.

She had hoped to live nearby to keep her commute short, but found most of the apartments in northern Bergen County, N.J., outside her price range. She has found a one-bedroom place on the Newark/Bloomfield border for $1,100 a month, including utilities.

"It's a nice area; it's something I would feel safe in," she said. And she decided she can live with the half-hour commute.

She was open to living with roommates, but most of her college friends plan to move back in with their parents and try to save money to buy a condo in a few years. She didn't want to do that.

"The route is for you to graduate college and be on your own," she said. Her message to her parents: "You guys have done enough for me. I appreciate it and I thank you, but it's time for me to be out on my own."

Shay Shaked, who is graduating from the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, is living with two roommates in a three-bedroom apartment in the Ironbound section of Newark. He didn't want to live with his mother in Livingston, N.J., which is much too quiet for his tastes.

"I'm pretty much a city person, and I'm a big advocate of Newark," said Shaked, who works at the Jewish Federation in Whippany, N.J. "There are great areas in the city. Price-wise and transportation-wise, it's a great place." He likes having stores and restaurants nearby, and especially enjoys being a short walk from Newark's Penn Station, which offers a quick trip into Manhattan.

Sharing a place keeps Shaked's monthly rent to $580. Because he has student loans to repay, living alone "is not an option at this point."

Steven Bloom of Glen Rock, N.J., a new graduate of Ramapo College in Mahwah, N.j., also is sharing a three-bedroom apartment with two friends. His share of the rent at the Elmwood Park apartment will be $575 _ much more manageable than the $1,200 to $1,300 rents he saw on one-bedrooms in many garden complexes in Bergen County.

In some ways, he said, his situation will feel a lot like dorm life again: "Living with new people, understanding them and their habits." But he's glad to be staying in northern New Jersey, where he has a job lined up at Toys "R" Us headquarters in Wayne.

Like a lot of new college grads, Scott Bordogna of Fair Lawn is headed to New York City, where he has a job with a financial company in Times Square. Bordogna, who just graduated from Lehigh University with a degree in finance, has been looking for an apartment in the Murray Hill neighborhood, which is walking distance to his job.

"One-bedrooms are pretty much out of my price range," he said. He expects to spend $2,000 to $2,800 a month on a studio of less than 600 square feet. Studios at the upper end of the price range often include a small alcove that can serve as a makeshift bedroom, he said.

Dan London of Hoboken, N.J., 22, is also headed to New York City. A graduate of Ramapo, he plans to continue his history studies at City University of New York.

He plans to look for a place in affordable neighborhoods, such as Sunnyside and Astoria, Queens; Flatbush, Brooklyn, or Inwood in northern Manhattan. He and his future roommate, who will also be a grad student, haven't started looking yet, since they won't need a place till September.

Living in the suburbs is not an option for him; nor is living with his parents in Hoboken.

"After four years of college, I feel it would be maybe a little bit infantilizing to go back to, literally, the basement, where my parents have moved my bed," London said.

He knows that for what he and his roommate can afford _ about $1,400 a month for a two-bedroom _ his next home won't be fancy.

"I'm used to a dorm, so I don't need that much," London said. "Actually, the Ramapo dorms are very good _ probably better than what I'd find in Queens."

For some new grads, the solution is to live with a college sweetheart, if they have one. But that's an economic decision that can have emotional overtones. It "may be accelerating that relationship, either for good or for bad," Kancherla said.

Some students were up in the air about their living plans even as they were counting down to graduation.

Nicole Sawyer, 24, is getting a bachelor's and master's degree in communications this month from Fairleigh Dickinson University, and has to be out of her dorm room by month's end. But she has yet to snag the job she wants in advertising.

"I really don't know where I'm going to be living," she said earlier this month. "I can't find an apartment until I find a job. I'm in limbo now." She doesn't want to move back to her parents' home in South Jersey because the advertising industry is based in New York.

She dreams of a New York apartment, but is looking in Bergen County instead because it's less expensive _ though still not cheap. The apartments she has seen in North Jersey start at around $900 a month.

"That's really high for me, just starting out," Sawyer said.

Landlords typically want tenants to have monthly incomes that are three times the rent _ a stretch for many new grads. Many ask the grads to have their parents co-sign the lease because they have little earnings or credit history, Kancherla said.

Just to get started with a rental, you need one month's rent, plus one month's security. And if you use a real estate agent, add another month's rent for the agent's fee.

"That's a nice chunk of change for college students to come up with," Kancherla said.

Fred Sokolich, a Fort Lee, N.J., real estate broker who specializes in rentals, says new grads who move in from out of state are especially taken aback by high rents. They don't understand why their $1,200 a month doesn't buy them a couple of bedrooms, a doorman and a pool.

"There's sticker shock, absolutely," he said. "You've got to get them up to speed on the market right away."