How realistic are New York apartments on TV shows?

Hannah’s two-bedroom apartment seems perfect for a struggling millennial. However, her lack of funds pushes “struggling” to a new extreme. Working as a freelance writer, she notes that she will make less than $24,000 a year. That salary would barely cover monthly rent, let alone the needs of a soon-to-be single mother, whether or not she has a rotating cast of roommates. To afford her Brooklyn pad, Hannah would need to literally become the voice of her generation. Or a voice in a generation.

Shoshanna is right that she got her studio for an “amaze!” price. As an undergraduate at New York University for part of the show, she’s probably financed by her family, who can help her afford the reasonable rent. Her cousin, Jessa, even moves in for awhile. And after Shosh graduates and returns from Japan, though it’s unclear what her exact job is, it’s not terribly surprising that she would be able to afford her place on a young professional’s salary. Arguably the most responsible of the “girls,” she frequents networking events and genuinely seems to care about her future. And it means she can save for the newest hair donut.

Marnie’s apartment, referred to as “the s--- box,” is high on the realism spectrum. A cramped studio with a shower in the kitchen, the space feels even smaller when her husband Desi moves in. (Desi tries to build a wall that would turn the studio into a one-bedroom, effectively making the apartment even tinier.) Marnie’s fickle job status — once an art-gallery worker, she is now a struggling musician — makes it hard to pay her bills. After she divorces Desi and is unable to come up with his half of the rent, Marnie begrudgingly moves back in with her mom.

In the latter half of the “Girls” series, it is completely plausible that Adam can afford his one bedroom. As a working Broadway actor in a well-received play, he would be making at least $1,800 a week, which is more than enough money to get by, especially when you factor in Ray and Jessa as his successive roommates. But for the first three seasons, Adam was virtually unemployable and subsisting on the $800 he received monthly from his grandmother. That amount would barely cover half of a Prospect Heights apartment. He even lives with Hannah for a brief period, during which he almost resorts to selling poorly made dream catchers on Etsy for cash because “people are f---ing stupid.”

Source: Illustrations based in part on floorplan designs by Laura Ballinger Gardner, Judy Becker and Matt Munn.