Welcome to It Happened One Weekend, our weekly roundup of The New York Times real estate section...
Every "The Hunt" column begins with the Hunters describing the apartment they want, and ends with them rationalizing whatever they came away with. This is The Hunt: Dreams vs. Reality
The Hunters: A young man looking to rent
Price
Dream: $2,500/month
Reality: $3,700/month
Neighborhood
Dream: Greenwich Village, LES
Reality: Greenwich Village
Amenities
Dream: 1BR, "cute" neighborhood
Reality: 2BR, high ceilings, "cute" neighborhood
Summary
This week's Hunter is Rowan Papier, a 22-year-old photographer who is basically the dead-eyed protagonist of a Bret Easton Ellis novel, with the name of some sort of boy sorcerer. After living in a Chinatown mid-rise that he loathed because it was crowded and noisy, Rowan found himself "craving a neighborhood with cute coffee shops, where you have brunch with friends" (he hadn't heard that brunch is a morally bankrupt hoax, but whatever). And so his search for the perfect one-bedroom began downtown, but his budget soon got the better of him and he started looking for bigger apartments instead, envisioning "a Tribeca loft with character in Greenwich Village." Later, he did find this absurd amalgamation in the Village, in a two-bedroom for $3,700/month, plus 12 per cent of a year's rent. Groan. [The Hunt/"An Apartment In His Own Image"; photo via Vivienne Gucwa/Curbed Photo Pool]
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