Though a native of Chicago, Faith Pennick considers herself a New Yorker. She lived in the city on and off for two decades, renting in different Brooklyn neighborhoods.

“I was unable to purchase an apartment in Brooklyn during the 1990s,” said Ms. Pennick, 56, who had student loan debt after earning degrees from the University of Michigan and New York University. “If I had done that, I would be sitting pretty right now. I know I have to get over that, but I probably never will.”

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Ms. Pennick, who is a filmmaker and writer — her book about the R&B star D’Angelo’s album “Voodoo” came out in 2020 — refers to herself as a “quasi-starving artist.” She currently works as an advertising copywriter in SoHo.

Unemployed at the start of the pandemic, Ms. Pennick returned to Chicago and lived with her mother. She landed a job and saved diligently for a down payment, always planning to return to New York. “This city is the place where I can be my authentic self,” she said. “Plus, my friends and church home are here. I am of the ‘New York or nowhere’ ilk.”

She knew she couldn’t hunt from afar. “The way something looks on Zoom and FaceTime is not the same as being in the space and opening up the cabinet doors and all that,” she said.

So she’d fly in from Chicago for months at a time, staying with good friends — a couple from her church in Fort Greene, Brooklyn — who had an extra bedroom. In her price range of $200,000 to $300,000, she wanted a one-bedroom co-op, though a large studio would do. Ideally, she’d find a move-in-ready place with a dishwasher and decent closet space, in a building with a live-in super and a laundry room.

She considered the Bronx, but couldn’t find a suitable place close to a subway station, which was a priority. Anyway, the Bronx was far from friends, church and work. So she focused on central Brooklyn, which had more subway options.

Ms. Pennick couldn’t afford to put more than 10 percent down, which she knew limited her options. (And she wasn’t eligible for first-time homebuyer programs, which she called “ridiculously rigid and unrealistic with their income cutoffs.”) She was referred to Natalie McCormack Richards, an independent broker, who steered her away from co-ops requiring 20 percent.

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