Virginia K. Smith

Finding a rent-stabilized apartment—let alone one you actually like—can feel a little like the white whale of New York real estate. But they're out there, lurking on StreetEasy, Craigslist and brokerage sites, open and available to the average renter.

We've been watching with a mixture of sympathy and schadenfreude as San Francisco's housing market has steadily surpassed the insanity of our own. (It's perversely comforting that at least somebody has it worse.) The latest development from out west: Some renters are paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars per month to split a room—and a set of bunk beds. 

CityLab documents the phenomenon as follows:

If you want to buy in Brighton Beach, better get in while the getting's still good (WSJ)

If you know (and love) who "cat head guy" and Jimmy McMillan are, you're a legit New Yorker by now (Buzzfeed)

How to kick out a roommate without landing in legal trouble (Zillow Blog)

As one half of podcasting duo the Bowery Boys—who cover all corners of New York history, from the first-ever apartment building to the original gangs of New York—it's fair to say Greg Young has a better rotation of cocktail party stories than the average New Yorker.