NY City home prices unnerve suburban upgraders

New York

RAISSA Fomerand grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and spent her early adulthood as a young striver in Carroll Gardens and Brooklyn Heights. She remembers those days fondly. So when her children were grown and out of her colonial in Larchmont, Ms Fomerand, 71, divorced and retired, wanted to move back to New York City.

"Lots of things come easily in the suburbs, but what doesn't come easily is the intellectual stimulation of being in an interesting neighbourhood," said Ms Fomerand, who has lived in Westchester County for nearly 30 years. "I'd like to live near the Metropolitan Museum or a place of culture." A year ago she started hunting for an apartment in Manhattan, and the search proved unnerving.