apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

...would a couple return to the city after years away and buy back their old apartment. No, only in New York would they return and be delighted to pay 417% more for the old crib. It's a lovely real estate fairy tale of the uber middle class as told by Joyce Cohen of The Times. The Guileys, Catherine and Doug, buy a 2,100 sqr. foot co-op north of 96th street in 1994 for 360K. They sell two years later for 620K (not bad,) and move to San Francisco where he gets a job with an "expanding clothing retailer." (Umm, Gap maybe?) Apparently bored by all the Gap-clad joggers in the Marina, they want to move back home. Unfortunately, the market has changed. 70 apartment viewings later, they find that their $2 million budget just ain't cutting it. Until, that is, their old doorman tips them off that their old apartment is up for sale. (That man deserves his holiday bonus.) Naturally, they overbid, and land the sucker for $1.89 million, a steal having only tripled in value since they sold. Now, as Ms. Cohen so aptly put it, they are happily "settling back into their new home...." OHR