61-25 98th Street # 7J

Let me show you the way residents do. You come through the gate, past the fountain and the booth, and Queens Boulevard drops away. Lawn, old trees, a path. The front gate is staffed around the clock; the lobby has a doorman from seven until eleven at night. Apartment 7J is a beautifully arranged corner unit on the seventh floor: 1,248 square feet by public record, six rooms, three bedrooms, two full baths, renovated in 2018 and immaculately cared for since. Then you turn into the living room and it keeps going: twenty-eight feet, rivaling a single-family house, with a French door onto a balcony screened at the rail and at the door. Meals get their own expansive area, and the galley kitchen has stone countertops, a gas range, a dishwasher and what galleys almost never get, its own window. The bedrooms sit down their own hall, so you can shut a door on the rest: the primary is fifteen by seventeen with a wall of fitted wardrobes and its own walk-in shower, the other two near twins, all with double exposure. And every room here has a window, both baths and the kitchen included. I itemize the monthly charge rather than bundle it: maintenance $1,415.67, security of $169.96 for the doormen and 24-hour gate, and $4.75 for your electricity connection, or $1,590.38, covering heat, gas, hot water, water, sewer, taxes, staff and grounds. Electricity is sub metered and billed by use. Fannie Mae approved, 80 percent financing, laundry, live-in super, garage. Now the part I like best. You do not need a car here. Costco is minutes, Aldi and Food Bazaar on the same loop, and the express bus to Midtown picks up on the corner. The M and R at 63rd Drive are minutes away. Playgrounds sit moments away in either direction, each with a splash pad, and across the street is Park City Swim Club, unaffiliated, keeps a heated Olympic size pool and kiddie pool for family enjoyment. Three-bedrooms on this line reach the market a few times a year, rarely with a balcony.