New York Obsession

East Village

"She was obsessed with seeing other people's apartments in the way that every New Yorker was always obsessed with seeing other people's apartments. Sometimes it was reassuring to see places smaller than hers. In those cases she was always intrigued by the concessions New Yorkers made: garment racks instead of closets, a desk under a lofted bed, a fireplace that had been retrofitted as a bookcase. But she really lived for moments when she somehow ended up inside apartments that offered a vision of a New York that seemed like it would forever be completely out of her reach."

Doree Shafrir, Startup

For the Sake of the Apartment

901 Broadway

"In other parts of the country people tried to stay together for the sake of the children. In New York they tried to work things out for the sake of the apartment."
David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

Shoebox Apartments

Harlem

"As fabulous as Manhattan is, the food, the celeb sightings, the shopping, it's also one of the most ludicrously expensive cities in the world. This means a majority of its inhabitants are forced to squeeze their entire lives into tiny shoebox apartments that anywhere else in the country would not be deemed large enough to house the family pet."
Christine Coppa, Rattled!

Real Estate Investing

Greenwich Village

"Everyone in New York knows someone else who could have bought a building 30 years ago for $9.00."
Warren Greshes, The Best Damn Sales Book Ever

Rent and Hot Dogs

Gray's Papaya

"Rent stabilization was an indelible part of New York life, like Gray's Papaya."
Nora Ephron, I Feel Bad About My Neck

Size Does Matter

432 Park Avenue

"Whoever said 'size doesn't matter' wasn't talking about New York apartments."
Arthur Nersesian, Manhattan Loverboy

A Wonderland of Speculation

West Chelsea

"Manhattan is a wonderland of real estate speculation, a hot center whose temperature cannot but increase as population increases and desirability remains several places ahead of capacity."
Luc Sante, Low Life

New York Apartments

164 East 37th Street

"What he calls home would look like a couple of closets to most Americans, yet the New Yorker manages not only to live there but also to grow trees and cockroaches right on the premises."
Russell Baker, So This Is Depravity and Other Observations

Manhattan Real Estate

Midtown

"This is Manhattan real estate. There are no rules ―  like check-in at an Italian sex party."
 Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), 30 Rock

The Adversity of NY Real Estate

Diesel store on Second Avenue

"It goes without saying that New York apartments are small, that New York rents are exorbitant, and that New Yorkers are extremely pleased with themselves for being tough enough to survive these adverse conditions."
Francesca DelBanco, Ask Me Anything

Real Estate

Door on the Lower East Side

"People in New York are authorized by convention to snoop around and mentally measure and pass comment on any real estate they're invited to step into."
Joseph O'Neill, Netherland

A Good One is Hard to Find

Central Park North

"I know you're new to New York, but apartments are a pretty big deal here. A good one is harder to find than a good man, so we tend to prattle on a bit about our digs."
Jennifer Coburn, This Christmas

No Castle

"If the adage is true that a man's home is his castle, then the moats of Manhattan's dwellings are no bigger than a carpeted hallway."
Steven Gaines, The Sky's the Limit

Dreadful

Seventh Avenue

"What makes New York so dreadful, I believe, is mainly the fact that the vast majority of its people have been forced to rid themselves of one of the oldest and most powerful of human instincts -- the instinct to make a permanent home."
H.L. Mencken, A Second Mencken Chrestomathy

Spectator Sport

Broadway

"Forget the Yankees. Real estate would always be New York City's truest spectator sport."
Sally Koslow, With Friends Like These

Sense of Movement

Moving truck on West 113th

"There's a tangible sense of movement in New York: People are always moving up, moving on, moving toward something bigger, richer, better. So we never stop to fully embrace where we live because we know that circumstances might arise hat call us onward. A two-year lease feels like handcuffs; actual ownership is a prison sentence."
Allison Winn Scotch, The Department of Lost & Found