I'll be honest: I live in Hudson Harbour, and I will continue to live in Hudson Harbour only becuase it the nicest apartment in the Poughkeepsie area. Its not a great Apartment. The rent is rediculous, the management acts like they are doing you a favor by letting you pay so much to live there. The contract is very very long (20pages) and essentially says that you are liable for everything, including pests (they bill you extra if they call-in the orkin man), damage while you are away, and they are allowed to enter your apartment at any time. Just be prepared for it, b/c you can't negotiate any of the terms. Also the price they quote you for rent is not your total rent. You are contractually obligated to get family cable (non-digital) plus hbo from cablevision. Its not a bad package, but they tack on $35 a month to your rent that you cannot opt out from.

My apartment is up to $1200 a month, up from $900 a month 4years ago. But they told me they are doing me a favor by not charging me the market rate of $1335!!! After you get in, expect an increase of $25-$100 a month every year dependant on your credit score. I have pretty solid credit (lots of school loans/associated debt bring it down), so I've been hit for $75 each time. My friend here has excellent credit an gets a $100 bump. And our other neighbors say they only get hit with $25.

They charge extra for parking by your apartment, and if you dont pay exta (but dont move you car often), they will call you up and tell you to move it for some maintenence reason (havent seen any maintence though), or they will tow it. I have 2cars and this happens about every two months usually when Im out of town on business. I asked them where I should park, but they always say 'anywhere', or that I could pay $25 a month to reserve a spot. They also suggested that I leave them a key when I go out of town so they can move my car themselves. I said 'no thank you'.

Don't expect any amenities, or attention to detail. My 2 room apartment has 4 different cieling textures, but overall the appliances are new and the fixtures are modern, albeit mismatched. There is no sports court, fitness room, pool, community room, theater room, or really much landscaping to speak of. There is a small playground for children if you have them. The laundry rooms are generally close (I believe there are 4 for the complex), and the machines are nice ($2/wash, $1.50/dry at time of writing). But they use cards which you can only add money to in the 'main' laundry room. So if its snowing and you are short $0.50 on your card you have to trudge across the complex to refill your card. There are some bbq's and picnic tables. Those tend to be very nice during the summer months, but don't play any music or someone will call the cops.

Also KEEP ALL DOCUMENTATION, because they have been known to 'lose' peoples leases and claim that they owe lots of money. This happenned to me: they said I never renewed my lease so it was $300/month additional for being month-to-month. Under that assumption they said I owed almost $2k in back rent (which they never informed me of), which resulted in a 3day eviction notice being taped to my door. I would have been very embarassed, but this is a pretty standard practice at hudson harbour, unless you can produce supporting documentation (like I did), they will see if they can get you to pay it.

Sublets are common, often with some incentives by the person trying to get out (happens pretty frequently). Don't ask the office about sublets, they will tell you there aren't any even if there are five available. Look in the laundry rooms, and craigslist as that is where people usually post them.

Not sure what else I can say. I haven't mentioned the area in general. If you are from upstate new york or originally from Poughkeepsie it will be fine. If you are from anywhere else that isnt referred to as 'the sticks', it sucks to live here. There is no getting around it. Poughkeepsie is an expensive area to live in, and has very little to offer. God forbid you are from California, very few Californians survive in 'Pooptown'. New york city is NOT close. Its about 2hours by train, so don't let them con you into thinking you can go down there wherenever you want. After you do it about 5times it gets very very old (and $25 round-trip on the train to boot). After saying that, there is no place I would rather live in Poughkeepsie. The traffic is too terrible to even consider living 15miles away in Fishkill. You can look at the other apartment complexes which are usually cheaper but even worse is some other way. If you are working for IBM, the proximitey to the areas only large employer (other than the welfare system) usually seals the deal. I'm sure there will be room...Im going to get out as soon as I can :-)

User Responses
From: honeylamb4	Date: 07/15/2008
I am so glad you told me about this place. Too bad I didn't about this place b4 I moved in here. Isn't there a way tenants can rally together?? Matthew told me that they included heat and hot water. Well my 500 dollar electric bill from central hudson told me other wise. Anyone who reads this DON'T RENT HERE-love someone who lives in a loft she can even afford to turn the air conditioner on now. I have just added stuff in the discussion section. Maybe we all can write a letter to the journal so others can be warned!

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