Renting in Washington Heights

What it's like

Washington Heights is hilly, green, and built almost entirely out of large pre-war elevator buildings, which is an unusual combination anywhere in the city. Apartments are big. Ceilings are high. Rents are roughly two thirds of what the same unit would cost forty blocks south.

It is far, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. From 181st Street you are thirty to forty minutes from Midtown on a good day. What you buy with that time is a real apartment and Fort Tryon Park.

Who it suits

Anyone who wants a proper one-bedroom under the Manhattan median, and anyone whose work is uptown, at the hospitals, or fully remote.

The catch

The A express and the A local are a very different commute, and the difference is which end of the neighborhood you live in. Check whether your station gets the express before you decide the trip is acceptable.

Getting around

The A and the 1, plus the C at the southern end. The A at 175th and 181st is the express, and it is the whole argument for living here.

What to check at the viewing

• Ask which line the apartment is on and whether it faces the courtyard. Courtyard lines are quieter and darker.
• Test the elevator. In buildings of this age and size, one elevator for eight floors is common and outages are the main complaint.
• Walk the hill from the train once. The topography is real and the maps flatten it.