Renting in Harlem

What it's like

Harlem is where the numbers still work. Real one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms in restored brownstones and solid pre-war buildings, at rents that stopped existing below 96th Street a decade ago. The blocks between Frederick Douglass and Adam Clayton Powell in the 120s and 130s are as handsome as anything in the city.

It is a neighborhood in the middle of a long argument about who it is for, and any honest guide should say so. Rents have climbed hard, the new construction is priced for people moving up from downtown, and that tension is present on the block rather than theoretical.

Who it suits

People who want space and are happy to be twenty minutes from Midtown on an express train rather than ten from a local one.

The catch

The quality range inside the same price band is enormous. A gut-renovated floor-through and a landlord special with a painted-over kitchen can list within two hundred dollars of each other, so the photos matter more here than almost anywhere.

Getting around

The A, B, C, D at 125th, and the 2 and 3 on Lenox. The A express from 125th to Columbus Circle is about ten minutes, which is faster than plenty of Brooklyn commutes people accept without complaint.

What to check at the viewing

• In a brownstone conversion, ask how many units are in the building and whether the owner lives there. It changes how fast things get fixed.
• Look for the building's HPD record before the viewing, not after. The older stock here has the deepest violation histories in Manhattan.
• Ask whether heat and hot water are included and what the winter has been like.