The Friends Apartment: Just How Affordable Was It, Really?
Photo: Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images
This September will mark three decades since Monica, Rachel, Ross, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe were introduced to the world via NBC’s Friends, a sitcom widely considered to be one of the most influential TV shows of all time. The misadventures of the 6 twentysomethings stumbling through life in 1990s Manhattan spanned 10 years and 10 seasons and averaged 25 million viewers a week during its runtime, firmly establishing it as a turn-of-the-century American pop culture phenom. Even today, the six Gen X besties are still captivating audiences, having found widespread popularity among younger Millennials and Gen Z.
Many of the show’s scenes took place in the iconic common area of Monica’s open-plan, two-bedroom West Village apartment, where she lived with Rachel, and later with Chandler. The set’s high ceilings, exposed-brick wall, and patterned parquet floor in the kitchen, plus the living room’s oversized windows, indicate that the fictitious apartment was supposed to be located in a prewar building. Rachel’s wedding invitation in season four reveals the apartment number as 20, and although it was never mentioned on the show, the experts over at The Agency believe this situates the unit on the third floor. There’s no consensus on the exact size of the apartment, but it’s generally believed to be between 1,125 and 1,500 square feet. (That’s pretty generous given that the average Manhattan two-bedroom apartment is around 793 square feet.) And because of its location and features, the aerie is most likely in a walk-up building (one without an elevator, typically between two and six stories).
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In New York City, apartments similar to Monica and Rachel’s are the kinds that create bidding wars despite their high sticker price. “If that apartment were available today, it could easily rent for anywhere between $8,000 to $10,000 per month, depending on its condition,” Mike Fabbri, a West Village specialist with The Agency, tells AD. “Even unrenovated, its location and size would command a high price.”
Monica’s purple living room walls and mix of shabby chic and countrycore style have been much talked about and copied over the years, but they were designed to reflect Monica’s life stage at the time and not necessarily any particular trend. “Monica really couldn’t afford a matched set of dining table chairs,” Friends set decorator Greg Grandes once told Entertainment Weekly. “It was meant to be that the character had a really good eye and was really meticulous and creative, so her Sundays were spent in New York in these parking lot swap meets and she did a lot of mixing and matching.” So, if Monica couldn’t afford a matching dining set, how did she afford a West Village apartment? Two words: rent control.
On the show, it was revealed that Monica illegally sublet a rent-controlled apartment from her grandmother who had retired to Florida. (Fans estimate her rent at a mere $200/month). Rent control puts strict limits on rent increases, protecting lower-income tenants from being priced out of the housing market. “Rent-controlled apartments of this size are extremely rare today in the West Village,” Fabbri says. The catch is, the policy that originated soon after WWII, ended by July 1, 1971. Any buildings constructed after that time fall under newer policies; however, properties that were originally granted rent control status retain the designation, which remains in effect to this day. To be lucky enough to live in one today, you’d have to be someone who continuously occupied a rent-controlled apartment prior to July 1, 1971 or be a lawful successor. “If one were available,” Fabbri says, “the rent would likely fall somewhere in the $1,500–$3,000 per month range, depending on the tenant’s lease history. These apartments are few and far between, and often come with long-term tenants who have held onto them for decades.”
Friends - Season 2
Without rent control, and sometimes even with it, apartments similar to Monica’s are out of reach for today’s average New Yorker. Clever, a real estate concierge firm, used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to come up with a combined salary of $120,000 per year for Monica and Rachel as a chef and waitress in New York City today, respectively. They used apartment 12A at 136 Waverly Place in the West Village for comparison and found that their hypothetical salary is nowhere near the $321,429 per year salary needed to rent the place or the $782,379 salary needed if they were to purchase the $2.65 million spot today. “It would be next to impossible for the two to afford [the apartment] at market rate in real life,” Nick Pisano of Clever says. Despite this, Fabbri says, “the West Village market remains incredibly competitive, with tight inventory and a constant influx of buyers.”
Originally Appeared on Architectural Digest
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