Parents of Art School Grad Pay for Chelsea Studio

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 Hunter: A Hawaiian art school grad
Price
Dream: $2,000/month
Reality: $294,000
Neighborhood
Dream: "Downtown"
Reality: Chelsea
Amenities
Dream: Studio, co-op
Reality: Studio, co-op, exposed brick, loft
Summary
Well, it's one of those weekends: the Hunter is a recent Parsons graduate from Hawaii, whose parents were willing to drop 300 grand on a studio apartment in Chelsea. Sabrina Banta had lived in Williamsburg for three years, but after graduating last spring, her parents wanted her to move somewhere else because "she was spending an obscene amount of money on cabs because she was always running late." Rather than simply have her leave earlier, her parents (both real estate agents in Hawaii) thought it would be more feasible to pay $2,000/month for a studio apartment somewhere downtown. However, they soon realized that was too small a budget and decided buy instead, looking for studios in Manhattan under $300,000. Eventually, they found a nice one in Chelsea in a Housing Development Fund Corporation building that required a down payment of "at least 50 percent." They paid $294,000. [The Hunt/"How Sticker Shock Led to a Sale"; photo via nrvlowdown/Curbed Photo Pool]