Big studio vs. small one bedroom

i would go with the one you like the most......and has the cheaper mtce/pricepoint if space wise it will be the same..

In 2003, I made the studio-vs.-one bedroom choice in favor of a studio, and it turned out to be easy to rent, and in terms of price gains, the better investment.

However, I met my husband not long after I bought it, and we lived there together for five years before we traded up, so it's worth considering -- how well would the studio in question hold two people?

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

I'm surprised that people buy studios at all... it seems like an admission that you're never going to get married and be single your whole life, so most people would rather rent a studio. But I guess I'm wrong about that. I think I saw somewhere that 11% of the market (Manhattan? NYC?) is studios.

The real question is, do you NEED that separation? If it is just going to be mainly you (like what front_porch said) then a studio of that size really allows you to have a lot of space. But when you chop it two with a wall, things get substantially smaller.

650 Square feet is a pretty good size though, so you could have a decent 1BR with that amount of space if it was laid out properly. The only real way I would be able to tell you was with floorplans.

(Matthew Russell - Brown Harris Stevens)

Things certainly FEEL a lot smaller in a divided space.

"I'm surprised that people buy studios at all." I'm very comfortable in a 550 sf studio and remain in it despite two multi year relationships--I'm not moving unless a relationship it very serious, and then I'll rent my place in case I ever need it again. A studio investment should be about value. They have the lowest monthlies and lower purchase prices. I saw two studio in 1998 in the sofia, a prewar condo adjacent to Columbus Circle, one for $99,000, the other, $260,000. I wanted the larger one, because it had a skyline view of Fifth Ave, (now 15 CPW) and could fit 2 people comfortably. The owner didn't accept my full price offer because I had started out with a lowball and offended her. I didn't buy the bargain studio because it was too small for me to live in. Boy did I live to regret that decision--I should have bought it along with the condo I decided to live in--it would have been an awesome investment giving all the changes, with TW Center, Whole Foods and Equinox only steps away.

"I saw two studio in 1998 in the sofia, a prewar condo adjacent to Columbus Circle, one for $99,000, the other, $260,000"

Wow, if only Manhattan were still so inexpensive...

"Wow, if only Manhattan were still so inexpensive... " The history of studios in the 80s and 90s was that they were hard to finance if they were under 500 sf. When a bank auctioned off 110 West 90th St condos in the early 90s, the bank sold condos at about $100k per room, but decided to hold on to two studios because they were hardest to sell. Studios got hit hard with the price correction in the early 90s. Buying a studio appeared more risky, but frankly, since they are easy to rent, they are great investments if bought at a good price,

I lived forever in a teeny (way less than 650 sqft, think about 50% of that) 1br and always enjoyed the separation between living and bedroom. A much larger space like op is talking about might have some actual grandeur as a studio depending on the space/light. I recently saw a studio on 14th and Avenue C which was probably a railroad apt with a few walls taken down...but it was incredibly light and airy. Two humans and three cats lived there easily...

If you get a studio, get an alcove so that if you ever needed you could build a true wall without killing the light in your main living area.

I'm trading up from my current studio because the layout didn't allow a good partition. I think that we could easily have lived there as a couple if we had the option of a wall without totally killing our space.

I have seen some prewar studios where two adults could live comfortably if they rented a separate storage unit for off-season clothes/papers/etc. I think it was either Chelsea Gardens or Chelsea Warren where we wandered into a studio open house by accident and were struck by how nice the floorplan was -- living room big enough to fit a sofa and a desk, dining area big enough to seat four, and windowless queen-sized bedroom area sectioned off with glass doors, good-sized galley kitchen. I'd guess the place was not more than 500 square feet, but laid out very well.

Anytime you get an extra "bedroom," you're going to pay more for the same space. We basically gave up on two bedrooms and focused on one bedrooms with an extra area. We got a place that has a nice-sized (9' x 10', slightly irregular) lofted second room with no window or closet, but still good light. It's perfect as an office, can potentially work as guest space, and could even be a child's room if necessary down the line. The same thing with a window and a closet would've cost us at least $100-150k more, I'm convinced.

A true bedroom has a window and its own HVAC.

A "junior one bedroom," I term I never heard of until I started looking at NYC real estate listings, has the sleeping area partially walled off. I'm not sure what the point of the wall is, except to spare people from having to see their bed from certain parts of the living area.

I would think that the resale would be better if you don't try to wall off a sleeping area, because the buyer looking at your studio may not like the place where you put the wall up.

If you're only one person, the purpose of a one bedroom is that you can hide your bed from guests.

If there are two of you, then the bedroom has the additional purpose of allowing one person to use the kitchen/living areas while the other person sleeps.

I think that, traditionally, there was a stigma against studios, but that stigma has maybe diminished in the NYC market, perhaps because real estate prices are so high, and because of the popularity among creative types of converting spaces in warehouses into one-room "lofts."

The whole "loft" thing could just be a temporary fad. (For that matter, I wonder if the open kitchen is also fad. Maybe, in the future, people will go back to liking walled of kitchens?)

bob, I think studio apartments are more valuable with a separate kitchen. The efficiency apartments created recently often have pullman style kitchens or an "L" shape or open kitchen which lacks cabinet space. I really think these layouts are less practical. Another issue is that recently constructed buildings often exaggerate square footage by including a % of common elements.

Lenny Bruce said it best : "There are three basic human functions - eating , sleeping and shitting. Don't do any two in the same place."

He may have had fucking in there as a fourth.

raddoc, Luckily, all studios have a separate bathroom, but you are expected to eat and sleep in the same room.

PMG, all new condos, no matter whether it's a studio or a 3 bedroom, have a large kitchen with an open breakfast bar or sink/food prep island. I'm not sure I get this, but that's the preferred style these days. People are a lot more into cooking than they were 50 years ago. I guess I'll have lots of space to microwave my leftover takeout.

bob, where are you looking? what's your price range?

Psychologically, you really do need the separation that a one-bedroom offers. Even if you're living alone, the ability to wander from room to room -- even if it's just between two rooms -- gives you just enough of a change of scenery so that your home doesn't feel like a prison cell, dorm room, or hotel room.

It's also very important to separate your "living" from your "sleeping" areas, in order to provide for a truly restful sleep. Sleeping in your "living" area (or worse, your "working" area, if you do any work from home), is not conductive to a good night's sleep.

Even more important is a separation of your sleeping area from your KITCHEN area. There needs to be a wall separating your bed from your refrigerator. Sleeping next to (or near) the motor of a refrigerator interrupts your brain waves during sleep. (The same holds true for sleeping near a cell phone or computer.)

"People are a lot more into cooking than they were 50 years ago."

No, they're just a lot more into high-end trophy kitchens.

If you think there's gourmet cooking going on in all of these kitchens, you're sadly mistaken.

"If you think there's gourmet cooking going on in all of these kitchens, you're sadly mistaken."

Then I'll say that a lot more people today like to THINK they are going to do gourmet cooking.

And people today are obsessed with "healthy" eating, whereas 50 years ago no one cared about that stuff. So people think they are going to make healthier food with their big expensive kitchen, and therefore live longer.

When all they really need to do is microwave their Lunchables a little longer to kill all the germs.

It's also very important to separate your "living" from your "sleeping" areas, in order to provide for a truly restful sleep. Sleeping in your "living" area (or worse, your "working" area, if you do any work from home), is not conductive to a good night's sleep."

I totally agree with this (and I've lived in VERY small spaces).

i'm in a 600sq ft studio and want very much a one bedroom, even the same sq footage..i hate having the bed in the same room. it's very uncomfortable when having people for dinner, etc.

We spent $8K on a good Murphy bed -- wood, not particleboard, side cabinets, etc. That allowed us to have a separation of sleeping and living space without having a separate room.

ali

Dinner or just hanging out is not ideal if there is a bed in the room, true. But you pay a third more for a separate bedroom, even if the amount of space is roughly the same. That reminds me: where I grew up, in a suburban house, the rule was no "entertaining" upstairs, where the bedrooms were. So the kids "entertained" girlfriends in the family room or the basement. Whatever.

"And people today are obsessed with "healthy" eating, whereas 50 years ago no one cared about that stuff."

Actually, 50 years ago people had no choice but to eat "healthy" because they didn't have all the chemicals, hormones, and other toxins in their food like we do today. 50 years ago, virtually all food was "organic" and meals were made from scratch.

"We spent $8K on a good Murphy bed -- wood, not particleboard, side cabinets, etc. That allowed us to have a separation of sleeping and living space without having a separate room."

How is that "separating" the sleeping and living spaces if it folds out into the same room?

"50 years ago, virtually all food was "organic" and meals were made from scratch."

If anything, they used more fertilizer and pesticides 50 years ago than today. And fresh fruits and vegetables were more expensive, so people ate canned food and white bread.

"If anything, they used more fertilizer and pesticides 50 years ago than today. And fresh fruits and vegetables were more expensive, so people ate canned food and white bread."

Actually, they didn't.

And adjusted for inflation, fresh fruits and vegetables were not more expensive.

are you really that dumb, matt? DDT? banned in 1972? used hugely before that.

Not "used hugely", however, 50 years ago.

Bottom line -- studios are fine for short-term renting, not long-term buying.

AR - you can't fight Matt on this one - remember he is still living in 1955

um, yes. wiki. it was banned in 1972. 1948-1972 definitely include 50 years ago.

The Swiss chemist Paul Hermann Müller was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1948 "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods."[2] After the war, DDT was made available for use as an agricultural insecticide, and soon its production and use skyrocketed.[3]

printer, that explains it. in his world they have only just begun using DDT. probably not big news yet.

1 bedroom. Trust me.

Here's an example of a 899 sq ft apartment without a bedroom:

http://streeteasy.com/nyc/sale/495313-condo-360-furman-st-brooklyn-heights-brooklyn

Is it worth half a million dollars?

Bob, If it faces Manhattan, I would say perhaps, in today's market, due to its size, plus it has an enclosed "home office" for a bed. It probably faces the BQE. And the developer is financially shaky, no?

Matt, Silent Spring?

And I'm not commenting on your personal life; I mean http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring

It's not so far a walk to the subway station on Joralemon st, and people will probably use the "home office" as a windowless bedroom (which is what I would do; I'm sure it has a heating/ac vent).

A condo that big in Manhattan would cost a million or more.

Too bad it faces the BQE.