I find it curious that George and Louise didn't buy a condo when they *moved on up*. I've seen the owner of the building, a man named Mr. Worthington or some similar name in a couple of episodes. In one episode, George was threatened with not having his apartment and his dry cleaner leases renewed.
I think, but I'm not sure, that they owned their home when they lived next to the Bunkers. If so, it seems even odder to me that they would sell their home to rent an apartment, even if it was that deluxe apartment in the sky.
Any thoughts?

I'm with you, I always thought that was a little odd. They did own their house on "All In The Family" and rented it out to Mike and Gloria when they moved to their apartment.

At first, it may seem odd that the Jeffersons rented their luxury apartment, rather than own it. You must remember, however, not to view the situation based on how things work today - you have to keep in mind that this show originated in the early 1970s. At that time, condominiums were not nearly as common as they are today. For the most part, they were found in resort areas, and were relatively scarce elsewhere. It wasn't until the late 70s/early 80s that condos gained in popularity. Therefore, when viewed against that background, it would not have been unusual for wealthy individuals in the 1970s to rent - rather than own - a luxury apartment in midtown Manhattan.

Thanks Jimbo. I wondered if maybe condos weren't common in those days, but I didn't know. Thanks for the info.

Good answer Jimbo--thanks--certainly makes sense to me. I wonder what the Jeffersons would be paying for rent for such nice digs.

JanLady617: Your quesion about what the rent would be today intriqued me too, so I went to one of those Real Esatate web sites that allow you to plug various criteria (location, number of bedrooms, etc.) to see what I could find. Based on a 3 bedroom (Mr. & Mrs. J., Lionel, Florence), 2 bath apartment in New York's Mid Town East and Upper East Side areas, I came up with 27 available apartments. The lowest rent was $3,195. per month, and the highest was $9,600 per month (Wow!). The average rent for the 27 units I found worked out to just over $6,000 per month. I don't even want to know what it would cost to buy a comparable place in that same area!

Thanks for researching this out Jimbo. You'd have to own quite a few dry cleaners to pay that kind of rent today.
When the show premiered in 1975, the going rate was probably $1,000 a month.

In response to the episode where the Jeffersons were in jeopardy of losing their apartment to Mr. (H.L.) Whittendale's friends, and Whittendale's brother R.S. (Whittendale) points out that George had ten year lease for the store, I found it interesting that H.L.'s brother's last name was "Whittendale" when in the epidsode where George watches H.L.'s dog (Poopsie) it was revealed that H.L's wife's last name was Whittendale, and he had it changed.

Any replies?