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Living small in the Big Apple

By Elaine Paoloni, amNewYork Features Editor | epaoloni@am-ny.com

March 23, 2007

"$1,100 small and perfect studio in the Meatpacking District," the ad read.

"Best corner in NY! The apartment does not get much light, but for the price, location and size it is a great deal! The perfect starter apartment or home office!"

Climbing the stairs of the second-floor walkup on a recent Thursday, two young women outfitted in animal prints and skinny jeans looked like they desperately wanted to be part of the neighborhood.

But once the door opened, any hope of chic Meatpacking living was dashed.

The description on Craigslist was accurate: It was about the size of a home office -- 100 square feet, according to the broker.

Within five days, the apartment had an application on it.

Although brokers often refer to such tiny studios as "starter apartments" or "stepping stones," these places often end up being called home for much longer, because as people¹s incomes increase, so do rents, making an upgrade always just out of reach.

So, as evidenced by the rise of Web sites like Apartment Therapy and retail stores such as Tiny Living in the East Village, many New Yorkers have abandoned dreams of more spacious digs and have decided to make the best of their glorified closets.

Valerie Reiss, 33, a Manhattan native and editor at Beliefnet.com, said she was disappointed when she was turned down for a 100-square-foot Upper West Side studio in 1999.

"Yes, 10 by 10," Reiss said. "A couple was living in it. I had one blemish on my credit so they wouldn't give me the apartment. The bathroom was down the hall. I offered a year's worth of rent in advance and didn't get it."

At 26, Reiss ended up moving into a 300-square-foot apartment in SoHo, where she thought she'd only be living briefly. But it ended up being a while before she was able to upgrade.

"For the first couple of years, I thought I'd be moving to somewhere bigger any minute, especially when I was a freelancer, living and working out of my tiny apartment. But I ended up staying for seven years."

Reiss moved to Prospect Heights last fall.

"I got to a point where I felt like I was about to be priced out of Brooklyn, so it was now or never."

Sion Misrahi, president of Misrahi Realty Corp. on the Lower East Side, which specializes in tiny renovated tenement apartments, recalled renting a 160-square-foot studio for about $1,200 about two years ago. He said his current listings range from about 200 square feet for a studio to about 600 square feet for a two bedroom. The rents: $1,500 to $3,000, respectively.

Oftentimes, apartments like these are the best deal a person can find if they want to live in the center of it all.

Kellen Hassell, a program director for United Cerebral Palsy of New York City, and his girlfriend, Brianna Hvam, a senior account executive at Edelman public relations, moved to New York from Madison, Wis., about three years ago.

They didn't know the city that well, and ended up taking an apartment on the corner of 30th Street and Fifth Avenue. When their lease was up, they were more than ready to move.

"I looked at places in every possible neighborhood expect for the Upper East Side," said Hassell, 24. "We saw one in Park Slope that we really liked. It was huge."

"Kellen really liked it," said Hvam, 26. "We sat and got coffee and we were talking about it -- and I literally started crying. I said, 'I don't want to move to Brooklyn. I want to stay in Manhattan. We've only been here for a year.'"

So they decided to refocus their search, and eventually moved into a 295-square-foot apartment on 15th Street, between Seventh and Eighth avenues, for $1,675 per month.

The real estate squeeze isn't just specific to trendy downtown areas.

Steven Corcoran, an independent real estate broker who deals mainly with the Tudor City complex in midtown, said studios there are just shy of 300 square feet. The co-ops currently sell for $255,000-$260,000, while rentals go for about $1,550-$1,850, he said.

In Tudor City, "the renters are serious-minded with good jobs," Corcoran said. "They often work for financial institutions, are attorneys or work on Park Avenue."

As many 30-something professionals choose to remain in their post-college microapartments, others are fleeing Manhattan for affordable housing options.

Soon places like Tudor City, which was built in the 1920s to attract middle-class residents who had begun moving to the outer boroughs and suburbs, may ultimately force middle-income New Yorkers out of they city instead of retaining them.