Luxury 1BR apartment, Harlem

Zennah Jones, 30, management supervisor; June Berry, 33, chef
Rent: $2,300, including heat and hot water
Broker: Lucie Holt, Citi Habitats (212-685-7777, ext 207; lholt@citi-habitats.com; citihabitats.com)
Broker’s fee: 12 percent of annual rent ($3,312)
Deposit: Two months’ rent plus elevator fee ($750)
Moved in: April 2012.

THE SEARCH: “Our budget was originally $2,000,” says Jones, “preferably for a two-bedroom, [but we found] if we wanted something of this caliber, we had to up our budget. The list price was $2,495, but we saw on StreetEasy [streeteasy.com] that it had been on the market for 60 days. I’d honestly never thought about negotiating rent, but we watch For Rent on HGTV, and they always say it’s negotiable. We figured that the owners would want to get it filled since it had been empty for a while.”

THE APARTMENT: “It’s a 1,048-square-foot one-bedroom penthouse with a 130-square-foot terrace,” says Jones. “You can see Yankee Stadium, and it has amazing views of the Bronx. I never thought [I’d] live in [a place] like this. I can speak on behalf of most 30-year-olds who don’t work on Wall Street. It has an open living room, dining and kitchen area; the bathroom has a rain showerhead; and the kitchen has high-end appliances—we’ve got a huge refrigerator, a pull-out freezer, a convection oven and a washer-dryer. The bedroom has a walk-in closet, and the living room has almost a wall of windows.”

THE NEIGHBORHOOD: “June works in Harlem and she has to be at work really early,” says Jones, explaining why they chose to live uptown. “I work in midtown, and it cut my commute in half compared to when I lived in Flatbush. There’s a police precinct on the corner, which helped sell it for my mother. I feel very safe. It’s all relative, though you have to not be silly—take cabs if it’s really late and you’re alone. Unfortunately, there aren’t many restaurants and bars near us. On 141st Street there’s Brownstone Lounge [2647 Frederick Douglass Blvd (Eighth Ave) at 141st St; 917-338-6363], but near us, there’s nothing. There’s a chain pizzeria on the corner and you have your standard bodegas, but our immediate neighborhood has some developing to do in terms of restaurants and nightlife.”