Botein

I lived in this apartment from when I was born until I was 1. My parents were in graduate school. The apartment is in Penn South, an affordable limited-equity coop. The waiting lists to get into the development are very long, but my grandfather was a judge and somehow pulled some strings to get us into the building.

We moved here when my father changed graduate schools. My mother found the apartment via rental listings at the Radcliffe College Housing Office. My parents slept in the living room and I had the bedroom. Our apartment was robbed when I was 3 and we never had a TV after that!

We moved here for my father's work. I went back for the first time a few years ago, and our house had been torn down! We rented the house for a reduced rate from the college. My parents hated small town life and were miserable.

We moved back to the city and everyone was happier. We lived in a "triple decker" building, which is a housing type native to the Boston Area. Our apartment was on top of our landlady's, so we were constantly told to be quiet. My mother had a friend who rented from our landlady, so he vouched for us when we were looking for an apartment. This neighborhood was considered to be the wrong side of the tracks when I was growing up, but is now very desirable.

I lived in various cheap rental houses in West Philadelphia after college.

I lived on the top floor of a triple decker again, with reduced rent because I was renting from friends of friends who mostly didn't live in the apartment.

I rented this apartment on the top floor of a brownstone for $700 month, after negotiating the landlady, who lived below, down in price.

I bought this apartment with downpayment assistance from my family.

After 8 years in my other apartment, it had more than tripled in value, so I used the proceeds from that sale to buy a bigger apartment in a less desirable (but still nice!) neighborhood in Brooklyn.