What Celebrities Paid for Their NYC Apartments

New York City is synonymous with real estate as the celebrities who've moved from all over the world to call neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Soho, Tribeca and the Upper East Side home.

Shows like Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, and Girls made viewers not only fall in love with the glamorous city life but the multi-million-dollar apartments where they were filmed.

It's no surprise that celebrities of all kinds including, musicians, actors, writers, and models from all over the world, make a piece of New York City real estate their permanent home, their summer home, or their transition home.

And don't doubt for a second that celebs skimp on luxury if they are living in apartments versus a traditional suburban home--celebs want what they want, and boy do they get it!

Taylor Swift

Tribeca has been dubbed 'Taybeca' by her fans when the singer and songwriter moved to the hip neighborhood in 2014.

She purchased not one, but two adjacent penthouses in a singular building at 155 Franklin Street as well as purchasing the attached townhouse at 153 Franklin Street.

She renovated the apartments to create one large duplex penthouse with ten bedrooms and ten bathrooms, covering 8,309 square feet.

Taylor is famous for having dinner parties with lots of baking with her friends, as evidenced by her social media, and that would not be possible without a huge swoon-worthy kitchen and living area for entertaining.

This property holds an estimated value of $20.5 million.

Because 8,309 square feet of space wasn't enough, the songstress went ahead and purchased a century-old, four-story townhouse in 2017, becoming her own neighbor!

Brimming with natural light on the first floor it has all the amenities that make it conceivable that

Taylor would never need to go outside with a gym, steam bath, cinema, and bar all inside this townhouse. This property is valued at $12.5 million.

Most recently, in 2018, in the same building of her penthouse, Taylor bought another condo on the second floor for $9.75 million from Jeremy Phillips in an off-market deal.

The condo has an estimated worth of $6.9 million.

All in all, Taylor dropped a combined $50 million for three units at 155 Franklin and the townhouse at 153 Franklin.

Mariska Hargitay

Mariska Hargitay, star of Law and Order: SVU, is probably one of the most famous actresses on television.

The long-running show has been based in New York for decades, so it's not at all surprising Mariska owned one of the gorgeous townhouses at 45 W 84th Street.

In 2012, the actress purchased an Upper West Side apartment for $10.7 million and eventually sold it in 2018 for $8.75 million.

It's apparent the apartment wasn't up to her standards because she completed a full renovation that created a colorful, contemporary New York City masterpiece.

Natural light entered even on the gloomiest days with high ceilings and floor-to-ceiling windows throughout the six-floor apartment.

The home featured eight and a half bathrooms, a terrace, a rooftop deck, and five bedrooms.

One of the most eye-drawing parts of the actress's former home is the carpeted turquoise stairs, which complimented the neutral palette of the townhouse design.

Rihanna

As the head of 'The Navy,' the name the businesswoman, entrepreneur, and songstress calls her fans, Rihanna's style has been one of her superpowers since she entered the music industry a decade ago.

So it's no surprise that that style rolled into her former penthouse on 129 Lafayette Street in chic Soho.

For four years, between 2013-2017, the actress called this uber posh penthouse home and paid $50,000 per month in rent.

The 7,000-square-foot apartment has one of the best views in the city, with the Empire State Building and Downtown Manhattan as its backdrop.

This Soho diamond is recently back on the market for featuring a 2,400 square foot wraparound terrace, four bedrooms, a wood-burning fireplace, a floating staircase, and a six-foot deep bathtub in the master suite $15.9 million.

Jerry Seinfeld

Mr. Seinfeld is to New York like cream cheese is to bagels.

Finding refuge on the Upper West Side, specifically on the corner of 129 West 81st Street and Central Park West.

The address at 129 West 81st Street is supposedly the building in which Jerry resided in before he ever had his own TV sitcom.

More accurately, he owns an apartment at the Beresford (at 211 Central Park West) on the 19th floor, though not more real estate information is known.

Although Seinfeld fetched his current New York abode for an undisclosed amount, the unit was originally listed for $4.35 million in the late '90s.

The famed building has been and currently is the residence to many celebrities such as Diana Ross, Glenn Close, Tony Randall, and John McEnroe.

It's said that co-op boards in New York had to adopt a "Seinfeld Law," which penalizes extended renovations that Jerry was accused of when first moving into his apartment.

Jeff Bezos

Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon and the wealthiest person in the world, has owned real estate in New York City since 1999, where he purchased three condos for $7.65 million in the iconic Century building on the Upper West Side.

In 2012, he bought a fourth unit for $5.3 million.

Bezos created quite the splash in New York City in 2018 when Amazon selected Long Island City as one of its newest headquarters and then abruptly pulled out in early 2019.

Quietly thereafter in the summer of 2019, Bezos spent $80 million on three adjacent units.

These include a three-story penthouse and two units that are directly below near Madison Square Park in the trendy neighborhood of NoMad, 212 5th Avenue Manhattan.

Bette Midler

The famed singer and actress called her HUGE, 7,000 square feet with an additional 3,000 square feet of outdoor space home for twenty years.

The apartment spans three floors--the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth-floors of 1125 Fifth Avenue building of the Upper East Side.

Each floor of the apartment has something to offer:

The lower level is home to five-bedrooms, including the master suite with an ensuite bathroom and dressing room.

In the center is an eat-in kitchen, a grand living room, and a dining room with Central Park views at every turn from the oversized windows.

And at the top is a wraparound terrace complete with the views of the Central Park reservoir.

This Fifth Avenue beauty was listed at $50 million, which makes it one of the priciest properties up for sale in New York City.

Not a shabby profit, for the original price tag of $3.5 million back in the early 2000s.

Don Lemon

The host of CNN Tonight on the cable news channel, Don Lemon, is ready to sell his 1,400 square feet apartment in Harlem on Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

He purchased the 2-bedroom and 2.5 bathroom condo in 2013 for $1.48 million, and it's now listed for $1.75 million.

Formerly a three-bedroom, the bright and beautiful apartment lost a room in a renovation to create a proper dining room and added more space and light with two large banks of windows.

Anne Hathaway

The actress has lived in New York on and off for years, moving from DUMBO to the Upper West Side in 2016.

She bought the luxury abode with her husband Adam Shulman after unloading their DUMBO clocktower penthouse for upwards of $4 million.

Hathaway's next purchase would be more modest at $2.55 million.

Her Upper West Side (at an undisclosed address) penthouse underwent a renovation with Gramercy Design at the helm creating a beautiful open floor plan for entertaining.

The open floor plan leads to a terrace perfect for relaxing in the summer months and taking in views of the Dakota.

The entrance to the now listed $3.49 million apartment is a private key-locked elevator that opens to an opulent foyer.

Jennifer Lopez

By now, we've all seen her 2020 Super Bowl Performance, and by all accounts, Jennifer Lopez loves to go big!

The same goes for her ultra-posh NoMad penthouse at the Whitman that hit the market in 2017.

With 6,500 square feet of interior space and an additional 3,000 square feet of outdoor space that spreads across four terraces, this penthouse is made for a star like J-Lo.

The singer and actress purchased the home back in 2014 for $22 million and initially listed it for $26.95 million, but due to a 7% drop, it's now listed for $25 million.

With four bedrooms and six bathrooms, the home features Italian marble slab bathrooms, direct views of legendary Madison Square Park, and twelve-foot ceilings.

One of her neighbors included the one and only Chelsea Clinton.

Another noted recently sold property of hers is one that she shared with baseball star Alex Rodriguez at the famed 432 Park Ave., which sold in 2019 for about $17.5 million.

Meryl Streep

One of Hollywoods' biggest leading ladies, Meryl Streep, and her husband have chosen to leave the concrete jungle for Los Angeles.

She purchased the Tribeca apartment more than a decade ago for $10.13 million, and it sold in 2019 for $15.8 million though it was initially listed for $24.6 million, a 36% price cut.

The penthouse at the top of the River Lofts Tower on Laight Street is entered by a keyed elevator from a private lobby that leads right into a private vestibule in the penthouse.

With an on-site 24-hour doorman, a garden, and a bicycle room, the building was also home to celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow.

Mrs. Streep's 4,000 square foot penthouse included fancy Brazilian walnut flooring, a state of the art kitchen with a butcher-block style island with two ovens and Miele and Boch appliances.

The entire property is impressive, but the 10-foot wraparound terrace that reaches three different sides of the property is what makes it shine.

The terrace gives way to panoramic views of New York's finest backdrops: The Empire State Building, One World Trade Center, and The Hudson River.

In a statement to The Wall Street Journal, Streep has expressed her love for the home and wanting it to be enjoyed by a new family, "This has been a great home for us, and I hope another family can now enjoy it as much as we have."