Apartment Rentals: Better to Live Upstairs or Downstairs?

Obviously the first thing most renters will do when looking for apartment rentals is seek out a suitable neighborhood. Location plainly matters when it comes to nesting. But how much weight should a renter put not only on where they live a city, but where they live in a building?

"I moved into a spectacular walkup," says Lisa Sanderson, a renter in Brooklyn, N.Y. "I was on the top floor and it was awesome...until it rained. Then it got a lot less awesome."

Sanderson learned that there can be perils to living in a penthouse.

"Top floor apartments run into problems because roof upkeep is not always foremost in a building manager's mind," explains Carter Moe, a foreman and building manager in Portland, Me. "And roofs are the most vulnerable part of a building."

But is living all the way at the bottom any better? The truth is, anyplace you live within a building has its own set of risks as well as its own set of benefits. Here are a few things to consider when deciding if you'd rather move all the way up or head all the way down.