Barrett and Stephen Brown-Fried have done plenty of moving. The couple, who married five years ago, started out in a charming Brooklyn Heights one-bedroom, then lived briefly in a renovated loft building in Jersey City.

When they returned to Brooklyn, all the apartments they loved had inadequate kitchens, so they rented a place with a well-equipped kitchen in a Downtown Brooklyn high rise, for around $3,200 a month.

“Stephen likes to cook and I like to be the benefactor of his cooking,” Barrett said.

Planning to stay in New York for the foreseeable future, and reluctant to keep pouring money into rent, they decided to buy a home. Barrett, 33, who studied architecture before becoming an executive in beauty and fashion retail, took the lead.