That Elusive Apartment? Broaden Your Horizons Am I missing something? "Words to Start a Stampede: New York Apartment for Sale," by Elizabeth A. Harris (The Appraisal, front page, July 9) refers to Manhattan and Brooklyn real estate and how few available apartments there are to buy. My husband and I can confirm many of the stories in the article; we sold our Upper West Side two-bedroom, two-bath apartment for considerably more than we asked for it, after one open house. Then we started looking. After exhausting the possibilities in Manhattan and Brooklyn, we decided to consider one of the other boroughs. We found a fantastic new four-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath apartment in Riverdale in the Bronx for a fraction of the cost of Manhattan. The 2,200-square-foot space comes with a parking space, rooftop terrace and balcony. It is five minutes from the No. 1 subway train, and there is an express bus to Wall Street that stops a block away. Why are more people not considering the other boroughs? The Bronx, Queens and Staten Island have wonderful places to live, and with transportation improving all the time, why not try them? We are truly perplexed. After reading the column, we doubted the economic sense of the New York housing market. We live in New Jersey, in a delightful town called Fort Lee, just a few minutes from the George Washington Bridge, and sales here are poor. Our spacious three-bedroom apartment is for sale, as are others in our fairly modern, 25-story apartment house, not on the river, but in a pleasant neighborhood. The space is at least four times the size of the apartments mentioned in the column, and the price is less than a quarter of the astronomical values quoted. More, the units have so many amenities not obtainable in New York: tennis and basketball courts, a large swimming pool, a playground and so on. And inside there are club rooms, a market, a cafe, a dry cleaner and children's playrooms. As for convenience to New York, the bus stops at the door. Our car travel to downtown Manhattan in the evenings is about 20 minutes, and we know some cheap garages. So we consider ourselves New Yorkers, and have frequented the culture of the city for many decades. In truth, we have moved to Florida, for better climate, but we miss our metropolitan existence. So, why should anyone fight for a city apartment when there are beautiful apartments so close? If interested, call a New Jersey real estate agent. CLIFFORD GOLD Daytona Beach Shores, Fla.