Amy Tan Takes a Novel Approach to Bird-Watching: ‘Be the Bird’
In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” the best-selling author revels in a newfound preoccupation with birds — and drawing.
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![Before Amy Tan began studying drawing, there were just three bird species in her backyard that she could identify; Anna’s hummingbird was one of them.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/09/realestate/10garden01/10garden01-thumbLarge.jpg?auto=webp)
![Before Amy Tan began studying drawing, there were just three bird species in her backyard that she could identify; Anna’s hummingbird was one of them.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/static01.nyt.com/images/2024/07/09/realestate/10garden01/10garden01-threeByTwoMediumAt2X.jpg?auto=webp)
In her most recent book, “The Backyard Bird Chronicles,” the best-selling author revels in a newfound preoccupation with birds — and drawing.
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The fire-resistant house she built in Napa, Calif., with the insurance money was “so different — and I like different.”
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A 1735 stone house on 32 acres in Saugerties, a Queen Anne Revival home in Stockbridge and an early 18th-century farmhouse with a guest cottage in Collegeville.
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Prospective buyers should limit any offer to the value of a property as they see it.
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$3 Million Homes in California
A midcentury-modern house in Los Angeles, a three-bedroom condominium in San Francisco and a hillside home in San Rafael.
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The Simplest (and Cheapest) Way to Decorate With Flowers
It starts in your own backyard (or the tiny container garden on your balcony): “You can put a single bloom in a flower vase, and that is often enough.”
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A mews apartment, a two-bedroom in a semidetached Victorian villa, and a three-bedroom in a rowhouse with a private backyard.
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Big Ticket: N.Y.’s Top Sales and Listings in June
Take a look at some of the most high-profile real estate listings and sales in June in New York City.
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From an R.V. to a Condo Near Washington: Which Was Better for Their Growing Family?
After spending two years on the road and having a baby, a young couple decided to put down roots just south of the nation’s capital. Here’s what they found.
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Homes for Sale in Manhattan and Brooklyn
This week’s properties are in Sutton Place, Gramercy Park and Flatbush.
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Homes for Sale in Connecticut and New York
This week’s properties are a three-bedroom in Weston, Conn., and a five-bedroom in Stony Brook, N.Y.
By Claudia Gryvatz Copquin and
How Do You Restore a Chestnut Forest or an Apple Orchard? Very Slowly.
This botanic garden is determined to bring back the American chestnut tree and heirloom apples that taste like those grown 500 years ago. It won’t be easy.
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$550,000 Homes in Maine, the District of Columbia and Kentucky
A two-bedroom cottage in Castine, a one-bedroom apartment in a Beaux-Arts building in Washington and a circa-1900 house in Louisville.
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Cowboy Hats and Koi Fish Photos? There’s a Reason.
Some interior designers decorate their adult apartments to be reminded of the hometowns where they grew up.
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When Your Neighbor Renovates, How Do You Protect Your Home?
A law exists to balance the interests of people who renovate their properties with the interests of their neighbors.
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Co-op Assessments: Do You Have to Pay What They Say?
Courts allow co-op boards significant power over building finances, including assessments — if the fees are in ‘good faith.’
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I Hired an Agent to Sell My Home. Do I Have to Pay the Buyer’s Broker Now?
The legal settlements roiling the real estate industry are changing the way commissions get paid. But the change could come slowly.
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My Neighbor Has a Very Annoying Emotional Support Dog. What Can I Do?
As long as this dog isn’t biting people, it’s probably not going anywhere. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to live with the noise.
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I Can’t Use My Co-op’s Keypad Entry on the Sabbath. Am I Entitled to a Side Door Key?
Because of your religious beliefs, your co-op could face legal liability if it fails to accommodate your request.
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A New World Order for Renters? Well, It Worked for This Guy.
During the pandemic, a man realized he was free to work remotely in any city he wanted, in the U.S. and abroad. After moving a dozen times, he had a second epiphany.
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Looking for Friends? How About 23 Housemates?
An engineer who moved from London to New York was planning to live alone, but ended up doing just the opposite — and loving it.
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The Make-or-Break Question for a New Roommate: Do You Drink?
A Brooklyn woman who has been sober for three years needed a roommate. But alcohol would not be allowed in the apartment. Some people thought that was a joke.
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He Wanted to Go Back Home to the Hamptons. Could He Afford It?
A man who struggled to find housing in East Hampton has turned his experience into a podcast, and many of his guests are ‘navigating the waters of trying to make a living here.’
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An Independent Life of Flowers and Bible Verses in the Bronx
A woman in a HUD-subsidized apartment in a building for older New Yorkers bristles at the notion that she would stay home and “watch these four walls.”
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With the cost of college through the roof, some parents have sold their homes or taken out exorbitant loans to pay for their child’s degree. Share your story with us.
By Linda Federico-Ó Murchú and Rukmini Callimachi
A recent study found that the size of the average new rental apartment increased by almost 30 square feet last year.
By Matt Yan
A stone villa in Calistoga, a Spanish-style retreat in Santa Barbara and a four-bedroom house with a guest cottage in Los Angeles.
By Angela Serratore
A four-bedroom house with a thatched roof, a turn-of-the-century rowhouse and a three-bedroom duplex in a converted grain distillery.
By Marcelle Sussman Fischler
Retailers like Chick-fil-A are opening smaller, takeout-focused outposts with little or no seating to complement their traditional locations.
By Celia Young
Co-op rules meant they couldn’t add a second bedroom, so they came up with an elegant workaround.
By Julie Lasky
With their lease on a Lower East Side apartment expiring, two software engineers wondered if buying made more sense than renting, now that the housing market wasn’t quite so frenzied. Here’s what they found.
By Heather Senison
Facing high home prices and mortgage interest rates, many people need huge down payments to afford a mortgage.
By Matt Yan
This week’s properties are in NoMad, the East Village and Park Slope.
By Heather Senison
This week’s properties are waterfront homes in Massapequa, N.Y., and Margate, N.J.
By Jill P. Capuzzo and Claudia Gryvatz Copquin
A tight-knit immigrant community trusted a developer as one of their own. But he pocketed the money, according to the state attorney general’s office.
By Matt Yan
The world-famous New York City gardens offer a master class in how to grow and maintain a naturalistic landscape. Here are a few takeaways.
By Margaret Roach
A Colonial Revival retreat in Greenwich, a Prairie-style house in Chicago and a Queen Anne Revival home in Houston.
By Angela Serratore
Tal Alexander, who rose to fame in the luxury housing market with his younger brother Oren, will take a leave from the firm he helped to create. Oren left earlier in June.
By Debra Kamin
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The small house in Washington was designed to sit lightly on the land: It touches the ground in only six places, and they didn’t cut down a single tree.
By Tim McKeough
A Craftsman bungalow in Altadena, a three-bedroom condominium in San Francisco and a renovated midcentury house in Sausalito.
By Angela Serratore
Flip taxes, also known as transfer fees, help co-op buildings raise money for repairs and improvements, and they must be described in your governing documents.
By Jill Terreri Ramos
A three-bedroom loft in an revamped factory, a two-bedroom apartment in a 16th-century house, and a detached villa in a leafy residential area.
By Joann Plockova
The Harlem home of the circus impresario James A. Bailey is being restored, detail by detail, by a couple who are learning the job as they go along.
By John Freeman Gill
A recently married couple moved to the Italian capital in search of a two-bedroom with a terrace in a central neighborhood. What would their $950,000 budget afford?
By Lana Bortolot
This week’s properties are in the West Village, Yorkville and North Riverdale.
By Heather Senison
A recent study ranked 100 of the largest U.S. cities based on median rents, job opportunities and social metrics.
By Matt Yan
This week’s properties are five-bedroom homes in Millstone, N.J., and Brewster, N.Y.
By Jill P. Capuzzo and Anne Mancuso
An 1860 rowhouse in Catskill, a Queen Anne Revival home in Holly Springs and a 19th-century farmhouse in Westminster.
By Angela Serratore
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Their passion for fruit you’ve never heard of started small. Now they have a botanical garden that’s open to the public.
By Margaret Roach
With temperatures climbing this week, here’s how to be comfortable in your home — with or without air-conditioning.
By Anna Kodé
The best open storage adds personality to a room. Here’s how it’s done.
By Tim McKeough
A co-founder of a brokerage that caters to the ultrawealthy and his twin brother face accusations that they sexually assaulted women. They have denied wrongdoing.
By Debra Kamin
A 1949 cottage in Lake Arrowhead, a Spanish-style home in Los Angeles and a Craftsman house in Berkeley.
By Angela Serratore
Has your mortgage come back from the dead? It probably wasn’t really gone, it was likely just hiding.
By Matt Yan
As the Supreme Court weighs whether cities can criminalize sleeping outdoors or in tents, Los Angeles is attempting to combat homelessness with tiny homes that some people criticize as inadequate and even ‘inhumane.’
By Ronda Kaysen, Karen Hanley and James Surdam
Shareholders have a right to know about the building’s expenses, and there are ways to look inside the books.
By Jill Terreri Ramos
As the Supreme Court weighs whether cities can criminalize sleeping outdoors or in tents, Los Angeles is attempting to combat homelessness with tiny homes criticized by some as ‘inhumane.’
By Ronda Kaysen
The Yankees legend initially put the compound on the market in 2018 for $14.25 million. This time, the asking price was $6.3 million.
By Anna Kodé
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A two-cottage compound on Lubbers Quarters Cay, a three-bedroom bungalow on Great Exuma island, and a two-bedroom condo on Paradise Island.
By Roxana Popescu
For a tiny apartment in London, the solution was a shape-shifting bank of custom cabinetry built on a tight budget.
By Tim McKeough
Darren Spaziani, a top executive for Louis Vuitton, is selling his three-bedroom co-op with outdoor space on West 23rd Street.
By Vivian Marino
Decades after arriving in Japan as a Latter-day Saints missionary, an American C.E.O. collected decaying treasures across the country, including a decommissioned Buddhist temple, and contrived a fantasy.
By Tim Hornyak
Seeking enough space for a music studio, a guest room and some outdoor space, a New York City couple searched south of Prospect Park for a house that fit their needs.
By Joyce Cohen
The formidable arts institution has hired a design team to reconsider its relationship with its neighborhood.
By Mia Jackson
This week’s properties are on West End Avenue, in the East Village and in Jackson Heights.
By Heather Senison
This week’s properties are four-bedroom homes in Smithtown, N.Y., and Stamford, Conn.
By Claudia Gryvatz Copquin and Alicia Napierkowski
As the third season of the Netflix hit resumes, we share some home-value estimates for the luxurious dwellings used as locations.
By Michael Kolomatsky
Sprinklers? Kiddie pools? What’s your creative solution to find respite from sweltering heat?
By Matt Yan
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A Craftsman bungalow in Denver, a midcentury-modern home in Riverside and an 1841 Cape Cod house in Newburyport.
By Angela Serratore
Where the Tony nominee takes refuge: a “sweet little house” on five bosky acres in Connecticut.
By Joanne Kaufman
It didn’t help that it was straight out of ‘Twin Peaks’: ‘Wood on wood on wood, in a very terrifying way.’ But now it’s bright and airy.
By Tim McKeough
A hillside home in Tiburon, a ranch-style house in Calabasas and a midcentury retreat in Palm Springs.
By Angela Serratore
When it comes to rent-stabilized tenants, legal claims against co-ops are tricky. Ultimately, it’s the apartment’s owner who must take action.
By Jill Terreri Ramos
The triplex penthouse has a faux-starlight installation of the Milky Way, a bathroom inspired by the Yellow Submarine, and more, the WeWork founder’s brokers say.
By Andy Newman
Two apartments and a single-family villa in and around the port city on the river Garonne, in southwestern France.
By Lana Bortolot
You may think you know how to make your bed — but here’s how to make it a lot better.
By Tim McKeough
The Oklahoma City Council voted this week to clear the way for a 1,907-foot tower, surpassing One World Trade Center in New York.
By Debra Kamin
After six years in the United Arab Emirates’ most populous city, a public-relations pro decided to put down roots and invest long-term. Here’s what she found.
By Ijeoma Ndukwe
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A new study ranked 180 U.S. cities for parenting based on relevant data.
By Michael Kolomatsky
This week’s properties are on the Upper West Side, Roosevelt Island and in St. George.
By Heather Senison
This week’s properties are a four-bedroom in Norwalk, Conn., and a five-bedroom in White Plains, N.Y.
By Alicia Napierkowski and Anne Mancuso
A three-bedroom condominium in a converted Gothic Revival church in New Haven, an 1873 rowhouse in Lambertville and a 1938 bungalow in Atlanta.
By Angela Serratore
This year, more than 360 private gardens across the country are opening to visitors. Don’t miss your chance to learn from some of the best.
By Margaret Roach
The renowned character actor, best known for playing Detective Bunk Moreland on HBO’s “The Wire,” says a white landlord rejected his rental application.
By Debra Kamin
Scott Sartiano proposed bringing his Manhattan-based members-only hot spot, Zero Bond, to a historic village inn. Local residents are not rolling out the red carpet.
By Jacob Bernstein and Anna Kodé
A midcentury retreat in Palm Springs, a 2021 townhouse in West Hollywood and a 1912 Craftsman bungalow in San Diego.
By Angela Serratore
The automaker paid $90 million for the ravaged Michigan Central Station in 2018, and will spend millions more to create a hub of businesses focused on transportation.
By Allan Lengel
Squeezed by high interest rates and record prices, homeowners are frozen in place. They can’t sell. So first-time buyers can’t buy.
By Rukmini Callimachi
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Landlords are required to put security deposits in interest-bearing bank accounts. How much of that interest goes to you?
By Jill Terreri Ramos
May's top listings included Drew Barrymore's estate in the Hamptons.
By Vivian Marino
A three-bedroom apartment in a modern tower, a duplex with a rooftop soccer pitch, and an 1898 mansion configured as a hotel.
By Michael Kaminer
In a city that’s constantly changing, remnants of old public artworks can be spotted between towers and in traffic triangles. You just have to look for them.
By Gabriel Blanco, Karen Hanley, Dave Horn and Anna Kodé
A Black woman claims a white homeowner tried to pull out of a sale because of her race.
By Debra Kamin
In a city that’s constantly changing, remnants of old public artworks can be spotted between towers and in traffic triangles. You just have to look for them.
By Anna Kodé
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