Regardless of which borough you pick (and it’s interesting how many of the loudest Manhattan advocates are former Brooklynites, and vice versa) you need to secure your belongings with renter’s insurance. Gotham is the first place you should look.

One of the few advantages of the recession for renters in New York City was its repression of rents.

Newcomers to New York can be surprised at how hard it is to not just find an apartment, especially in Manhattan, but to negotiate a lease.

We at Gotham Brokerage Co., Inc., watch with fascination the ebb and flow of the real estate market in New York City — which boroughs are trending, which neighborhoods attracted young, affluent renters last month and why another neighborhood 12 blocks west is hot this month. It’s like trying to predict currents in a river — you can tell which way the river is flowing, but there’s all kinds of turbulence within the main flow.