A young couple leaves a spacious, affordable Chicago apartment to live in a cramped East Village, Manhattan apartment. Slide show with audio and related article describe their old and new digs, as well as the arduous hunt for their new home.
"Ms. Birch, 26, and her boyfriend, Brendan McGrath, 24, both from upstate New York, met at Ithaca College. He followed her to Chicago, where she attended graduate school.
After a few years, their friends started moving on, and they decided to return to New York. They relinquished their $1,100-a-month Wicker Park apartment (which Mr. McGrath called a "monstrously huge, three-bedroom railroad-style flat").
They didn't mind a walk-up, and would be glad for outdoor space, they told the agents they contacted. They could pay up to $2,100 a month."
What follows in both the audio and article, "The Hunt - Life Lessons, Welcome or Not", is the viewer/reader seeing what it is like to hunt for an apartment in the East Village. Finally, success...
"As they hunted for a one-bedroom rental in the East Village, Elizabeth Anne Birch and Brendan McGrath felt real estate agents were determined to teach them a lesson: he who hesitates is lost."
"The one-bedroom, on Avenue A near 14th Street, was just big enough so 'we won't break up being in such close quarters,' Ms. Birch said. It seemed dark, with a few small windows overlooking a courtyard where trash was stored. Insects buzzed. But the two liked it well enough. They were the first people to see it, so it was theirs if they wanted it. They did."
FULL STORY: Audio Slide Show: Hunting for Density
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