Couple Makes the Move from Dumbo to Harlem

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 couple looking to buy in Manhattan
Price
Dream: $1 milllion
Reality: $912,500
Neighborhood
Dream: Manhattan
Reality: Harlem
Amenities
Dream: 2BR, new building
Reality: 2BR, new building, closet space
Summary
his weekend's Hunters are a couple looking to move out of the Dumbo and back to Manhattan. Our Hunters—the Jansens—moved to Dumbo two years ago from Tribeca, but quickly found it to be a far flung wasteland where "everything is somewhere else" and the commute is "horrendous." So they decided to buy a two-bedroom back in Manhattan, and they began looking uptown. They had a budget of $1 million, which, they realized, wouldn't get them much on the Upper West Side. However, they liked what they saw in Harlem, saying that it "really feels like a neighborhood." They saw some floorplans for the Adeline, which was then under-construction, and decided to throw down $900,000 for a two-bedroom, plus $12,500 for basement storage space. They sound happy! [The Hunt/Harlem, Because Convenience Counts; photo via Harlem Bespoke]