Notice anything different about Brick?

As you can see, Brick Underground has undergone a major renovation. It's a true makeover rooted in two missions: utility and discovery. For starters, we wanted our readers—for whom we're enormously thankful—to be able to experience the website the same way we hope they do their homes and the city: with ease in the knowledge that they can find what they need when they need it (hurray for organized categories and a non-cluttered design!), and comfort in knowing that Brick is here to provide answers to your important questions, no matter how seemingly small or specific, about New York City real estate and New York City living (service journalism at its core). And we wanted to be of service while still being entertaining and engaging and, yes, a sleek eyeful. But we also wanted to tell the stories—your stories—of buying, renting, and living in NYC in all sorts of substantial ways.

We start by continuing to make sure your essential questions about massively challenging real estate decisions such as buying and selling your apartment, or finding a rental that makes sense not just with your budget but your lifestyle, are answered thoroughly and mindfully. We organized all that great information—nearly 8,000 stories since we launched in 2009—in categories relevant to our readers, from tried-and-true areas for which we've become known: Buy, Rent, and Sell (the pillars of the NYC real estate experience), to more expansive ones we've embraced, such as Live, because getting an apartment is only the first step to thriving in this city. We want to know what's happening in our neighborhoods because that shapes our lives here; we want to make sure our relationships with our landlords are in good shape for both them and us since, hey, who wants to be taken advantage of (and some of us have tenants ourselves); and we want to know how to get along with our neighbors because as cheesy as it may sound, we're all in this together. And we want to know how we can afford it all, whatever our net worth is. 

With Improve, we nerd out on architecture and home design as it affects your day-to-day living (because we're not just about what's pretty but why, and why it should matter for all of us). We also scout out furniture and appliances that make city living easier and better and take on DIY projects and bigger renovations because our apartments, like this city we live in, are constantly evolving as we figure out how to make them more comfortable with better design, more functional with less square footage than is ideal, and more representative of ourselves, whatever stage we find ourselves in. 

And then there's our new section, Escape. As any New Yorker knows, what makes this city bearable sometimes is finding ways to get away from it for a moment, whether to the mountains, the beach, other urban retreats, or figuratively, within our own city's confines via staycations. Plus, with prices so high in the city, a lot of people are buying their first homes in getaway destinations but continuing to rent here. 

And if you're in the market for a second home, or own one now, we have your back with tips and advice, too. Plus, we're also posting stories about the ultimate escape—unplugging from the city entirely by heading to the suburbs (or Los Angeles, Austin, or Detroit?). 

 

To make your experience more satisfying, we'll be rolling out new site features in the upcoming days; we're also beefing up our blog posts and guides with more slideshows, how-tos, first-person essays, Q&As, and videos that get at the authentic natures of the places we live in and the people who live there with us. (As often happens with renovations on and off the web, you may notice some issues that need last-minute touch-ups—please bear with us and do send your feedback in the comments below. Or if you like what we've done with the place, we'd love to hear from you, too!)

Wait, there's more! We're also launching the Brick Underground Podcast, to give voice, literally and figuratively, to New Yorkers who want to share their stories of what living in this bold and befuddling city is actually like. 

This is Brick Underground: real estate, real life, real New York.