What Ever Happened to the Three-Bedroom?

In New York City, true threes are rare and coveted. They’ve always been elusive, but never have the pickings been so slim — or expensive — brokers say. Most of what’s out there seems to be a one- or two-bedroom chopped up to accommodate a third (the new kitchen unit awkwardly tacked onto the wall of an already small living room is a dead giveaway) or luxury new builds that are priced for Goldman executives. Anyone with a halfway decent three-bed — that is, an apartment that is actually, properly large, not just excessively partitioned — isn’t giving it up.

The odds are better in new development, where 20 percent of new development units in Manhattan are three-bedrooms (and 19 percent in Brooklyn), says Stephen Kliegerman, president of development marketing at Brown Harris Stevens. Although, they’re more expensive and often involve compromising on neighborhood. Kelly Scher, a Corcoran broker who bought a $2.6 million three-bedroom at the Solaire, in Battery Park City, loves her apartment (it has three bathrooms and a big foyer) but admitted she hadn’t exactly sought out the neighborhood, though it’s grown on her. Once she and her husband decided they wanted a three-bed under 14th Street, on the West Side, for under $3 million, it was the obvious choice. (It was pretty much that or the Financial District.) “I didn’t have to do too much looking around because there wasn’t too much to look at,” she says.