‘Sex and the City: The Cost of Samantha Jones’ Studio Apartment
When Sex and the City opened, Samantha Jones lived in a pre-war apartment. She liked her living accommodations just fine until she let in a guest in the middle of the night, and he accidentally held the door for a criminal. After her neighbors figured out Samantha’s guest was the one who allowed an assailant into the building, she wore out her welcome and began searching for a new pad. Ultimately, Samantha purchased a unit in the meatpacking district. You’ll never believe what she paid for the place, though.
Samantha Jones purchased her apartment in the meatpacking district in 2000
When Sex and the City ended in 2004, all four ladies were homeowners. Miranda first purchased her one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment. Samantha Jones bought her studio during season 3 of the series. Charlotte was given her Park Avenue palace as part of her divorce settlement, and Carrie bought her brownstone unit in season 4.
Unlike her pals, Samantha opted to leave the Upper East Side and moved into the Meatpacking District. In 2000, the neighborhood was up-and-coming but was still trendy enough to garner attention from real estate enthusiasts. So, exactly how much did Samantha Jones pay for her apartment? She gave that info away in the season 3 episode, “Cock-a-Doodle-Do.” In the episode, she laments that she was paying $7,000 per month to deal with noisy neighbors.
How was Samantha Jones’ apartment worth?
With a bit of math, it’s pretty easy to figure out roughly how much Samantha shelled out for her studio apartment. A mortgage of $1.1 million would break down to about $7,000 per month. That’s just the mortgage amount, though. Samantha Jones would have had to come up with a hefty down payment for her apartment, too.
According to Brick Underground, a 20% down payment on a co-op or condo is standard practice in New York City. If Samantha put down 20% and was still left with a mortgage of $1.1 million, her unit probably sold for about $1.4 million, depending on interest rates.
The price was steep back then, even for Manhattan. According to The New York Times, real estate prices soared to an average of $700,000 in early 2000, a steep increase from just five years earlier. Samantha paid about double for her unit.
Did Samantha Jones sell her New York apartment when she moved to Los Angeles?
Sex and the City fans never learned what became of the apartment when Samantha left New York to follow Smith Jerrod to California. When the original series ended, Samantha Jones lived in her Meatpacking District apartment. During the first movie, she lived in California but often flew back to New York. Viewers never saw where she stayed, though.
In the reboot, And Just Like That…, Samantha lives in London. Because she hightailed it out of New York, we can safely assume she eventually unloaded the studio apartment. Hopefully, she turned a huge profit.
