Faith Pennick, a native of Chicago who considers herself a New Yorker, lived in Brooklyn on and off for two decades while renting in various neighborhoods. Student loan debt prevented apartment purchases in the 1990s, creating lasting regret. She worked as a filmmaker and writer and currently works as an advertising copywriter in SoHo. Unemployed at the pandemic's start, she returned to Chicago, lived with her mother, then landed a job and saved diligently for a down payment to return to New York. She prioritized friends and her church, flew in to view apartments in person, and sought a one-bedroom co-op or large studio priced between $200,000 and $300,000 with move-in-ready features, a dishwasher, decent closet space, a live-in super and laundry.
Unemployed at the start of the pandemic, Ms. Pennick returned to Chicago and lived with her mother. She landed a job and saved diligently for a down payment, always planning to return to New York. This city is the place where I can be my authentic self, she said. Plus, my friends and church home are here. I am of the New York or nowhere' ilk.
She knew she couldn't hunt from afar. The way something looks on Zoom and FaceTime is not the same as being in the space and opening up the cabinet doors and all that, she said. So she'd fly in from Chicago for months at a time, staying with good friends a couple from her church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn who had an extra bedroom.
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