You can’t even sneeze in NYC for 25k. I was making 50K and living in Hoboken in 2016 and was just barely scraping by, and my rent was only about $1600/month.
60k is probably the bare minimum for non-section 8, and that’s gonna be a tiny little dog shit apartment, unless you’re far out in one of the boroughs other than Manhattan. A friend was paying $800/month for an apartment… But she was down in Great Kills in Staten Island, living in an above the garage apartment attached to a house. It was like a 45-50 minute drive for her to get into Lower Manhattan.
Last year I lived in a 1 BR by myself an hour away from Manhattan (by subway, about a half hour drive) and it was $2500/month for about 550 SQ ft with two built in AC units, a dishwasher, and paid laundry in the basement.