ARTHUR FREEDMAN has lived in a rent-stabilized studio in the East Village for 29 years.

But as he watched housing prices fall over the last year and as a leak in his bathroom went unrepaired month after month, he decided a few months ago that it was time to become a homeowner.

“Some people might think I’m the luckiest man in the world, paying $725 a month to live in this neighborhood,” he said. “But my friends say: ‘You can live nicer than this.’ And you know what? I should live nicer.”

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