Jordan Pacitti and his husband, Ben Griffiths, were ready to move. The couple, a pair of former professional dancers, had landed in New York in 2020 after years of living in Seattle where they danced for the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Soon, they were looking for their next adventure — preferably in Italy.
The couple are Italophiles, and Mr. Pacitti, 45, a third-generation Italian-American, was working on getting his Italian citizenship when, in March of 2025, the country changed its laws to allow only first- and second-generation Italians to obtain citizenship through ancestry. So they changed tactics, opting to apply for Italy’s Digital Nomad Visa. Mr. Pacitti founded a skin care line in 2013 and could work from anywhere, and Mr. Griffiths, 42, works for his company. But they were denied on a technicality. With the lease on their Sutton Place apartment coming to an end in March, the couple deferred their plans to live abroad and decided instead to buy a home in New York City.
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Armed with a budget of $600,000, they hoped to find a two-bedroom, two-bath apartment that wouldn’t need a complete overhaul. They also wanted the home to be close to subway lines and have reasonable maintenance costs. The couple had accrued a bit of a nest egg courtesy of some prior luck in Seattle real estate and their dance careers, which they each started at 18, but they were mindful about pricing because, as Mr. Pacitti said, they didn’t “want to be house poor.”
“We’re in New York City to enjoy New York City,” he said, adding that while they could have afforded more, “we want to enjoy the city and we want to start saving more seriously again for retirement.”
At first the two looked at Forest Hills in Queens, and Flatbush and Midwood in Brooklyn, but “our life, for the most part, is in Manhattan,” said Mr. Pacitti. So they turned their eyes north to Washington Heights and Inwood.
“They knew exactly what they wanted, and they knew what would work and what wouldn’t,” said Laurence P. Mitchell, an associate broker at R New York who worked with the couple.
Mr. Pacitti and Mr. Griffiths “made it very clear to me that they were looking for their almost forever apartment,” he said.
Among their options:
No. 1
Third-Floor Co-op Unit in Washington Heights
This two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment was a sponsor unit on the third floor of a Washington Heights co-op. The unit had recently been renovated and had a relatively large kitchen. There was also plenty of closet space, something that appealed to both Mr. Pacitti and Mr. Griffiths. But it lacked a second bathroom and the building didn’t have an elevator. The asking price was $529,000, with maintenance costs of $1,379.
No. 2
Fifth-Floor Walk-up in Washington Heights
The couple toured a second apartment in the same Washington Heights co-op building. The layout of the two-bedroom, one-bathroom sponsor unit mirrored that of the first apartment. But it was located on the fifth floor of the walk-up building. Being higher up meant that it received more light than the first unit. It also came with a lower asking price of $489,000, with maintenance fees of $1,379.
No. 3
Elevator Building in Inwood
This two-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment was on the fifth floor of an elevator building in Inwood. The apartment was close to the No.1 and A subway lines, but the couple didn’t like that several flights of stairs were required to reach the train entrance. The apartment, which was in good condition, had a renovated kitchen, but it lacked the second bathroom the couple had envisioned and the second bedroom was quite small. It also wasn’t a sponsor unit, meaning the couple would need board approval. The asking price was $575,000, with maintenance costs of $1,635.
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