166 State Street
Photo: Curbed; Photos: JDM Real Estate Consulting

This article first appeared in The Listings Edit newsletter, a weekly digest of the most worth-it apartments in New York City. Sign up to get it first.

Listen, it’s not as though getting an apartment in New York has ever been easy. But one could probably argue it has never been harder than it is right now. The most god-awful studios are regularly renting for thousands and thousands of dollars with lines of interested tenants out the door. Here, we’ll find the actually worth-looking-ats, the actually worth-the-costs, and the surprisingly affordable-for-those-parquet-floors from all around the internet. 

Weird week, friends. Started on the Upper East for some gutted-mansion hopping because East Harlem wasn’t giving me great results. From there, I ventured to Sunset Park, which was disappointing because I saw only two apartments I liked. After that, I did some Brooklyn Heights and Cobble Hill browsing — avoiding Downtown Brooklyn, a.k.a. Consensus Clunkism, with all my might. Stick around for a little slice of new-to-me Bed-Stuy history.

$2,700, studio: An apartment for ants. Let me amend: a cheap apartment for ants.

452 East 78th Street
Photo: Cooper & Cooper Real Estate

$3,850, studio: Top-floor alcove, yes please? An apartment for ants with trust funds and a proclivity for views.

$5,000, 1-bedroom: Handsome renovation with highlights that include a Verona red-marble bathroom and a gorgeous cedar sauna on premises.

343 East 74th Street
Photo: Compass

$5,500, 1-bedroom: I just thought the building itself was sexy!

$8,100, 2-bedroom: The stone balcony is what I’m signing up for here. Can’t tell if the blinding fluorescence is because of recessed downlights or because of the bad image quality … but you should go find out for me.

$8,700, 1-bedroom: Ever wanted to live in a defunct doctor’s office on the Upper East Side?? Now’s your chance.

$8,900, 1-bedroom: It’s feeling very Donna Tartt, very Goldfinch-coded in here.

$11,000, 3-bedroom: Two walk-in closets, which I guess explains the high price point?

$14,500, 3-bedroom: The most fabulously ugly dungeon/mansion I’ve seen in a long time. It was listed for sale this summer but appears to have just sat. The skybridge connecting the bedroom to the rest of the house?? It’s giving Epstein’s lair …

52 East 78th Street
Photo: Compass

$2,800, 2-bedroom: Image 9. The pairing of the bottle of red and the Old Spice deodorant is evocative and quite frankly romantic. Otherwise, cheap with potential.

$4,500, 3-bedroom: Honestly really nicely renovated parlor-floor apartment that won’t last.

563 41st Street
Photo: Sousa Real Estate, Inc.

$3,195, 1-bedroom: I just love how New York this place feels. In less than 1,000 square feet we have a ballet studio, an outdoor living room, a photo gallery … who needs space when you’re living life to the fullest?

$4,200, 1-bedroom: Big, weird mansion with bad lighting and linoleum floors. But I’m a sucker for exposed beams, and maybe you are too …

1698 Lexington Avenue
Photo: StayBK LLC

$3,000, 1-bedroom: The theme this week is dance studio, I guess!

$3,900, studio: I find the idiosyncratic floor plan appealing here! The giant picture window and bookshelf is a nice side by side, too.

166 State Street
Photo: JDM Real Estate Consulting

$4,700, 1-bedroom: www.windows.com

$12,950, 2-bedroom: Very Nancy Meyers in here … I’m just such a sucker for a semi-wide plank of wood. Especially when there are a lot of them and they’re in my kitchen.

471 Henry Street
Photo: Brownstone Real Estate

Since I can’t go a week without talking about Bed-Stuy, and because of my recent move (we’re officially putting it in the past tense) into a two-bedroom in a multi-family brownstone in the neighborhood, I have new, vested interest in some of my apartment’s original details. I’ve never been big into mahogany — too close an association with men’s club things like cigars and poker and private libraries. But lately I’ve been gravitating toward these more masculine details, studying and appreciating them with a closer eye. Amazing to think that when these brownstones were built, they came equipped with beaded lattices, perfectly stained herringbone, and floral-chiseled woodwork.

While reading around, I learned that it was not a man but a woman named Susanna Russell who was actually responsible for many of these details. Russell was one of the first women developers and architects working in Brooklyn, and she and her husband developed and designed five rows of houses here in Bed-Stuy, built between 1878 and 1882, mostly in the Neo-Grec and Queen Anne styles. Here’s some of what’s left of her work: 61 Hancock, sold in 2019, still has some of her ornate cornice work on some of the doorways; 101 Hancock was recently sold and completely gutted, with no details spared; 276 Monroe was also gutted, also sold; 82 Monroe wasn’t gutted but worse, demolished, and a condo building stands in its place. And lastly, the Brownstone Boys, a developer duo who renovate townhouses, recently completed a project called Saving Susanna in which they sanded away years of dark varnish and restored much of the original woodwork, ornate ceiling medallions, and plaster tapestries.

Sign up for ‘The Listings Edit’

A weekly digest of the most worth-it apartments in New York City.

Vox Media, LLC Terms and Privacy Notice

Related