Destination - Downtown Manhattan - NYTimes.com Five years ago, Emily Rose had a summer internship at a television news organization. She lived in the Barnard College dorms. "After that, I knew I wanted to move back to New York City after college, regardless of how I got there," said Miss Rose, who is from a suburb of Philadelphia. Though she had studied broadcast journalism at Pennsylvania State University, she decided against going the broadcast route, "which meant you had to move from small town to small town," she said. Instead she moved to New York with her college roommate and landed a job in advertising sales. The roommates moved often, from the Upper East Side (which felt distant from the downtown action) to Murray Hill (in a loud neighborhood and an apartment that "felt dirty no matter how much you cleaned it") and then to the East Village. There, Miss Rose, now 26, paid $1,500 for her share of a small two-bedroom in a walk-up tenement building. She had a 12-minute walk to the L train, which she rode to her office in Chelsea, where she works in display advertising sales for Google. She decided to buy a place of her own. Her roommate departed for Los Angeles. "I was going to shoot for exactly what I wanted," Miss Rose said. Her requirements were minimal: a one-bedroom or studio somewhere downtown, preferably within easy walking distance of her office. Ideally, this place would be in a well-managed building with a doorman and a roof deck. She was prepared to spend up to $450,000. "I don't need anyplace extravagant," she said. She contacted Ian Katz of the Corcoran Group, who had helped other Google employees with hunts. Inventory was low, he told Miss Rose, and within her small geographic range, the possibilities were few. One option was on East Eighth Street near Mercer Street. It was a modest brick building with no doorman in a busy location. "It is going to feel like an N.Y.U. campus," Mr. Katz told Miss Rose, who saw two large studios there. She liked them both. One, a corner unit with a partitioned-off sleeping area, was listed at $335,000 with maintenance of less than $1,000 a month. The other was on a higher floor, equally nice, and facing the building's back courtyard. It was asking $355,000 and had maintenance of a little more than $1,000. But the building "didn't have too much of a homey feel," she said. The deal-breaker was that the building has a land lease, which means it stands on leased land. "That's what scared me away," Miss Rose said. She feared that when the lease expired, the building's value, or even existence, could be jeopardized. Both studios sold for $345,000. Over in Chelsea, on West 18th Street, she saw an alcove studio with a tiny bedroom. The price was $385,000, maintenance in the mid $900s. It was nice, with large windows and a working brick fireplace, but Miss Rose was leery of the location. A school playground, with a running track and basketball hoops, was directly next door. The place sold for $375,000. That was "a no-frills walk-up-type building," Mr. Katz said. He suggested that she instead look at "a bigger building with amenities," adding, "I told her she should go with something smaller inside, but a bankable building with reasonable maintenance." At a white-brick building in Greenwich Village, circa 1963, several rectangular studios were available. One, in great condition, with a little more than 400 square feet, was listed at $415,000 with monthly maintenance just over $800. "It didn't look huge," Miss Rose said, "but it was doable. I fell in love with the building itself. The draw included an attended lobby and a roof deck, as well as a laundry room. "The cherry on top is: It might be a studio, but it had two walk-in closets," she said. I was absolutely sold when I saw the closet space. Having lived in so many places, and having seen so many friends" places, she knew she would find nothing better. And, with the market heating up, "I had to make a move," she said. I was terrified I would lose it if I waited. Miss Rose negotiated a price of just over $400,000. The seller was leaving behind two bar stools and a combination bookshelf-TV stand, which turned out to be mounted on the wall in a spot she didn't like. The seller agreed to have the wall mount removed, so the pieces would be free-standing. Miss Rose arrived in late spring, setting up shelves to separate the sleeping area from the living room. A studio is "a little limiting in terms of having space to entertain," she said. It can get cramped quickly. Still, she is glad she went for a large building rather than a large apartment. "Everybody seems very open on the elevator and introduces themselves," she said. I asked my next-door neighbor how long he has been living there. He said since the beginning of time. It is a place that people are comfortable calling their home. A lot of people are a little older than me, and I think that's because when people move in they are never motivated to move out. With a doorman to receive packages, "I find myself shopping online more often than I used to," she said. Her commute is eight minutes on foot. The neighborhood is replete with restaurants, which is convenient, because she blogs about them on her Web site, wasabipeanutnyc.com. She can't resist continuing to follow the market. The Web site Streeteasy.com still automatically notifies her of downtown places priced below $500,000. She always looks, she said, "and I decide every time that my apartment is better."