Virginia K. Smith

Depending on your perspective, this is either a welcome reminder of your affordable housing options, or a forehead-slapping bulletin that even the well-off need subsidized housing in NYC: new development Gotham West apparently has a glut of vacant middle-income apartments for renters making up to six figures, according to a New York Post story from the weekend.

Befriend your stranger-danger roommate in five easy steps (My First Apartment)

Tips from a pro apartment stager: get rid of your trash cans, orchids and down-market cookbooks (The Billfold)

We'll be rolling out fresh tips for surviving the city with kids this Family Week, but we also dug through the archives for our best advice on the apartment search, handling kid-related building etiquette, and eventually, helping your kid lock down their own slice of NYC real estate:

Finding the right neighborhood for you (and your brood)

A Craigslist apartment scammer is on the loose on the Lower East Side—here's how to avoid getting duped (Gothamist)

How to handle a neighbor who provides a 24-hour soundtrack (NYT)