About

Your daily survival guide for buying, selling, renting and living in New York City.

Brick Underground is an independent digital media website whose mission is to help New York City renters, buyers, sellers, and renovators navigate one of the most complex and expensive real estate markets in the world.

About Us

More than five million current and future city dwellers visit Brick Underground each year for practical real estate information such as how to move to New York City, find a no-fee rental apartment, compare co-living spaces, negotiate with a landlord, buy a New York City home, or renovate a co-op, condo, or brownstone, and much more.

Founded in 2009 by journalist Teri Karush Rogers, who previously covered local real estate as a contributor to The New York Times, Brick Underground has been named Best Real Estate Website by the National Association of Real Estate Editors two years in a row.

Our editorial team publishes 20 articles and three email newsletters each week (including a newsletter for NYC real estate agents), produces a podcast leveraging insights from NYC's leading real estate experts, and expands the boundaries of service journalism with helpful tools like our gross rent calculator, used by tens of thousands of prospective renters to easily calculate the rent they'll actually pay when an apartment is advertised at the net effective rent.

Have a question, story idea, or first-person story for our editorial team?
Send us an email.

Interested in advertising?
Email us or download our media kit.

Are you a first time renter, buyer, seller or renovator? Explore our guides:

HOW TO BUY IN NYC

HOW TO SELL IN NYC

HOW TO RENT IN NYC

HOW TO RENOVATE IN NYC

BEST REAL ESTATE WEBSITE!

Gold Award Winner

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REAL ESTATE EDITORS

Founder & Publisher

Teri Karush Rogers

PUBLISHER & FOUNDER

After covering New York City real estate for five years as a contributor to The New York Times, journalist Teri Karush Rogers launched Brick Underground in 2009. Tapping her network of real estate experts and her own service journalism zeal, she set out to educate and empower the city’s renters, buyers, sellers, and renovators one post at a time.

Her mission hit home: Today, five million New Yorkers and soon-to-be New Yorkers turn to Brick Underground every year for answers to their real estate questions. More than 63,000 people subscribe to Brick Underground’s twice-weekly newsletter, and still more listen to the Brick Underground Podcast. The indispensable, independent online resource Teri and a dedicated team of journalists built has twice been named Best Real Estate Website by the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Teri has been featured as an expert on New York City residential real estate by The New York Times, New York Daily News, amNew York, NBC Nightly News, The Real Deal, Business Insider, the Huffington Post, and NY1 News, among others.

These days, Teri focuses more on Brick Underground’s publishing side, applying her news-you-can-use lens and entrepreneurial bent to create successful advertising partnerships that deliver value to readers and advertisers alike.

Teri earned a BA in journalism and a law degree from New York University, which taught her she would rather explain things than argue about them. Teri raised a daughter, a dog, and a digital media business in the same Upper West Side co-op, and is a four-time renovation survivor.

Editorial Team

Jennifer White Karp

MANAGING EDITOR

As managing editor since 2018, Jennifer steers Brick Underground’s editorial coverage of every aspect of New York City residential real estate—from major rent law changes, to monthly market reports, to trends and strategies for buyers, sellers, renters, and renovators. During her tenure at Brick Underground, the independent online resource has been named best real estate website in the U.S. two years in a row by the National Association of Real Estate Editors.

Jennifer’s 15-year career in New York City real estate journalism includes stints as a writer and editor at The Real Deal and its spinoff publication, Luxury Listings NYC. A longtime Brooklynite who has sworn off basement apartments, she graduated from Wesleyan University and has an MFA in nonfiction writing from the New School.

Emily Myers

SENIOR WRITER / PODCAST PRODUCER

Emily Myers is a senior writer, podcast host, and producer at Brick Underground. She earned two awards for the Brick Underground podcast from the National Association of Real Estate Editors. Previously she worked as a journalist and content producer in San Francisco and a senior broadcast journalist at the BBC in London. Emily studied journalism at the University of the Arts, London and earned an MA Honors degree in English Literature from the University of Edinburgh. In spite of her itinerant background, Emily has been living in the same Brooklyn rental for six years.

Austin Havens-Bowen

STAFF WRITER

Staff reporter Austin Havens-Bowen has covered real estate at Brick Underground for over two years. Previously he reported on local news for the Queens Ledger and The Hunts Point Express in the Bronx. He graduated from Hunter College with a BA in media studies. He rents a one-bedroom apartment in Astoria with his boyfriend and their two cats.

Evelyn Battaglia

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Freelance journalist and editor Evelyn Battaglia has been immersed in all things home—decorating, organizing, gardening, and cooking—for over two decades, notably as an executive editor at Martha Stewart Omnimedia, where she helped produce many best-selling books. As a contributing writer at Brick Underground, Evelyn specializes in deeply reported only-in-New-York renovation topics brimming with real-life examples and practical advice. A renovation survivor and resident of the Upper West Side since 1994 (starting with a tiny studio with "Central Park views" when standing tiptoe in a pink-tiled bathroom), Evelyn can often be found running with her dog in Riverside Park.

Marjorie Cohen

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Marjorie Cohen is a New York City-based freelance journalist, editor and author of over seven non-fiction books. Her real estate reporting has appeared in amNewYork, Investopedia, and The West Side Rag. Since moving to New York five decades ago for graduate school at the Teachers College of Columbia University, Marjorie has lived on the Upper West Side, with a brief detour to West 15th Street when she got six months free rent in a new building. Her current apartment is rent-stabilized and she is never, ever, going to willingly leave it.

Kelly Kreth

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Kelly Kreth has been a freelance journalist, essayist, and columnist for more than two decades. Her real estate articles have appeared in The Real Deal, Luxury Listings, Our Town, and amNewYork. She won a National Association of Real Estate Editors award for column on the Covid death of her building’s doorman. A long-time New York City renter who loves a good deal, Kreth currently lives in a coveted rent-stabilized apartment in a luxury building on the Upper East Side.

Mimi O’Connor

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mimi O’Connor has written about New York City real estate for publications that include Brick Underground, Refinery29, and Thrillist. She is the recipient of two awards from the National Association of Real Estate Editors for interior design and service journalism. Her writing on New York City, parenting, events, and culture has also appeared in Parents, Red Tricycle, BizBash, and Time Out New York. She is the author of several books, including "The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit" and "Reel Culture." She once lived in a NYC building in such rough shape that a Law & Order location scout rang her doorbell to inquire about using her apartment as a murderous psychopath’s headquarters.

Alanna Schubach

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Contributing editor Alanna Schubach has over a decade of experience as a New York City-based freelance journalist. She has written about real estate for Brick Underground, Mansion Global, and Barron's. She has also contributed features, essays, and op-eds to The Nation, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and The Village Voice. She won a National Association of Real Estate Editors’ silver award in 2018 for her Ask an Expert column for Brick Underground. She is also a fiction writer and a creative writing teacher, and currently lives in Brooklyn.

Mary Lowengard

CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Mary Lowengard is a New York City-based freelance writer with more than three decades of experience as a journalist and editor. In addition to her work for Brick Underground, her reporting on business and finance has appeared in The New York Times, Fortune, Institutional Investor, Worth Magazine, and Bloomberg News. She has lived in a co-op on the Upper-Upper East Side of Manhattan for 25 years.