Losing Your Dream Apartment – The New York Times

The problem with finding a place you love is that renting is by nature temporary, said Gary Malin, the president of real estate agency Citi Habitats. Some people might stay for many years, but the average is two or three.

And the more impressive the deal, the more precarious it usually is. After all, part of what makes a dream apartment such a dream is that, for one reason or another, someone is charging a lot less than they could get for it. Sooner or later — and often sooner — that ends.

For Courtney Luick, losing a dream apartment is just part of living in New York. When she moved back to the city from Los Angeles three and a half years ago, a friend offered her the second bedroom in his rent-regulated place in TriBeCa for $1,500 a month. It was a huge apartment, on the 40th floor of a doorman building, with a private terrace and stunning views of the Hudson River.

“You could just stare out at the water all day,” said Ms. Luick, who recently moved out to live with her boyfriend, David Kallaway. “It was pretty incredible, but it wasn’t really mine.”

Still, the apartment was so awe-inspiring that their real estate agent at Warburg Realty, Rafael Feldman, tried to convince Ms. Luick and Mr. Kallaway to stay there together, before finding them a pleasant, if ordinary, one-bedroom in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. “I guess if you have to leave,” he said, “love is a good reason.”

Ms. Luick said she is a little in shock to wake up looking at a wall rather than a breathtaking view of the Hudson. “But I was excited to move in with David,” she said. “I wanted to start a life with him, to have our own place together.”

Of course, with time and circumstance, anyone’s definition of what constitutes a dream apartment can change, said Stephanie Diamond, the founder of Listings Project, a free weekly email of real estate and related listings. “The factors that make a dream apartment at 23 are not the same ones that make a dream apartment at 45,” Ms. Diamond said. “The question is, What space helps your actual dream work? Dreams expand and grow.”