is buying a studio worth it?

There is probably no one out there who is more engaged in my apartment search than my parents. They are not only big believers in the value of real estate ownership as a path to financial security, but also they are retired. Which means they have a lot of time to send me listings that they find online. It’s not uncommon to get an email or a text from my parents about an apartment “Days on Redfin: 4 hours”.

And even while they are on vacation in Italy, my team is working around the clock - this week my Mom sent me a listing for a studio in Brooklyn Heights. It’s in my price range and also in a super nice neighborhood (objectively, and also on the scale of the neighborhoods I could conceivably afford to buy in).

In fact it’s emblematic of a classic set of tradeoffs: in exchange for a more central location, I have to accept less space. And this is generally true across the apartments I’ve been looking at. If I want to find a 1 bedroom apartment (and preferably one on the larger side) in my price range, then I need to be looking in Crown Heights or Ditmas Park. However, if I’m willing to go for a smaller place, it would open up other neighborhoods, such as Brooklyn Heights or Fort Greene (there is also a lot of supply in my price range on the East Side of Manhattan, but I’m not sure if I’m emotionally ready to consider that).

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More importantly, this trade-off is non-linear. In some neighborhoods there are only ~studios~ available in my price range. For many people, and probably many readers of this substack, a studio is a complete non-negotiable. And for the uninitiated, a studio is like an apartment, except there are no doors. Except for the door to the bathroom, if you’re lucky. All of this is to say that we can add some nuance to the theory that apartment hunting is an exercise in trading distance from the center of town for space. Because at some point there is a precipitous drop off in quality of living space as we get to studio-only territory. We can call this the “studio cliff”:

Now many of you are probably aware that I already live in a studio, or as some people have called it, a micro-studio. And to be honest, I totally love it. So I know that I am capable of making these kinds of trade-offs. The problem with homeownership is that it is long-term. Am I long-term capable of living in a single room? Could I do it for 3 years? For 5 years? Forever?

The question also becomes about potential changes to my life circumstances - what if I want to get a dog? Or move in with a partner? Or have kids? All of these things that seemed like nebulous future realities are suddenly thrust into the foreground and must be examined in the harsh light of a poorly staged studio apartment. And due to the restrictive nature of co-ops (more difficult to resell, inability to rent out) these questions are uniquely pressing.

I’ve been looking at places for a few months and I must say that I still don’t have an answer. Maybe I would do it for the right apartment? Could a large studio work? Or is it really about being able to close a door? Potentially the hardest part of buying an apartment is all the soul-searching it entails.

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City Speak #50

Bennett Capozzi