In fact the patios, ranging in price from $40,000 to $150,000 (depending on size, location and time of purchase) have sold faster than the condos.

Of the 157 luxury units at 1450 Washington Street — some of them penthouses with attached outdoor space — two-thirds have sold, said John McCullough, an assistant vice president of Toll Brothers City Living. Of the 15 private terraces, only two remain.

For those gravitating to North Jersey’s waterfront — whether it be families leaving New York City in search of more space, or 20-somethings looking for better job and social prospects — having private access to the outdoors has become an expectation, and cost does not really seem to be an issue. Increasingly, this holds true despite the buildings’ more-or-less suburban location, in easy proximity to public green space of various kinds. Developers have responded by providing not only access, but also full-scale open-air social and entertainment centers, with lap pools, grilling stations, fire pits, playgrounds, jogging paths and dog runs at many of the newer upscale waterfront developments.

“I don’t think they can truly be competitive without having some type of outdoor offering,” said Chris Krasas, the chief financial officer of Let It Grow, a landscape and construction company in River Edge that has built several outdoor spaces in Hoboken, Jersey City and New York City. “The need to bring nature into these mostly concrete structures and for people to have a place to interact with the outdoor environment is very important.”

Traditionally these outdoor amenities have been available to the residents of a building as common space, but Toll Brothers has gone a step further. In addition to the private terraces, its newer buildings have two common areas: a second-floor courtyard garden surrounded by park benches, and a rooftop area with lounge chairs, barbecue grills and a two-sided glassed-in fire pit. Mr. McCullough said the idea was to offer tenants a choice.

“If you can afford a unit with a private outdoor space attached, that’s gold,” he said. “Or you might buy a relatively lower-priced unit, then take that money you saved to buy outdoor space.”

The private terraces range in size from 450 to 750 square feet. Five are on a seventh-floor rooftop, and 10 are on the top of the 12-story building. Each comes with gas, water and electric hookups; two lounge chairs; and an outdoor dining set. The two 550-square-foot patios still for sale are on the roof; each is listed at $80,000. Owners also have the option of reselling their terrace spaces to other residents. Toll Brothers offered a similar product in 2008 to residents of Harborside Lofts; all 11 private rooftop spaces on offer sold, at prices ranging from $50,000 to $200,000.

The kind of outdoor space being offered at 77 Hudson, a 420-unit luxury condominium in Jersey City built by K. Hovnanian Homes, is more traditional: 44,000 square feet of shared amenities, half of which are outside. An 11th-floor roof above the garage has a lap pool, hot tub, lawn, park, barbecue grills and fire pit, as well as a fitness center.

“I’ve heard people say it’s like living on a cruise ship, or South Beach on the Hudson,” said Scott Waldman, the president of Hovnanian’s brokerage division, noting that the building holds zumba and yoga classes, movie nights and other activities that have brought homeowners together. Along with the utilities, the amenities and activities are included in the monthly maintenance fees, which range from $590 to $1,270, Mr. Waldman said. Asking prices for units in the 49-story glass tower are $524,000 to $2.6 million, and so far about three-quarters have sold.

Elsewhere in Jersey City, Crystal Point, a 42-story condominium built by Fisher Development Associates, has a deck on the sixth floor equipped with a pool, a spa, fire pits and barbecue grills. All but two of the 269 units in this building have sold, at prices ranging from $650,000 to $1.495 million, according to George Cahn, a spokesman for the project.

North Jersey’s luxury rental market also has outdoor amenities. At one big project, Xchange at Secaucus Junction, there is even a rolling meadow, available to tenants as well as the public in Secaucus. Outdoor space makes up about 20 of the project’s 60 acres along the Hackensack River — which, when built out, will include 2,035 units. Included in that outdoor space is an amphitheater fronted by a 2.5-acre great lawn, its flat topography regraded by the project’s developers, Atlantic Realty Development in Woodbridge, to give it an undulating slope. Here, the project’s managers have staged concerts, movie nights and a holiday light show that drew an audience of more than 1,300 last November.

“We feel we’re neighbors with everybody in Secaucus,” said Jeremy Halpern, a vice president of Atlantic Realty, one of the developers of Xchange, “and we wouldn’t want to exclude them from this incredible property.”

Toll Brothers, similarly, has given the public in Hoboken access to various outdoor improvements. As part of its development agreement with the city, the company employed Let It Grow in building Maxwell Place Park and Pier, both of which were turned over to the city upon completion, according to Mr. McCullough. The properties include a sandy beach with a kayak launch, a boathouse and a raised peninsula that juts into the Hudson River.

More or less adjacent to these public spaces, Toll Brothers has three major projects in the works: the four-phase condo plan that includes 1450 Washington Street and Harborside Lofts; the Hudson Tea Building, a condo conversion of a former Lipton Tea plant; and Maxwell Place on the Hudson, 554 luxury condos that Mr. McCullough described as the company’s “premier product in New Jersey.”

Callingthe Maxwell Place Park and Pier “fabulous amenities for the city,” Mr. McCullough noted: “They’re not private to the residents of Maxwell Place on the Hudson. But obviously, they have a front row seat.”

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The couple lived and worked in a former munitions factory in Corktown, a Toronto neighborhood adjacent to the historic Distillery District, which consists of several blocks of Victorian industrial buildings. They had 6,000 square feet. Over time, Mr. Iwaskiw, a furniture designer, renovated much of the interior.

This winter, he had a chance to work in New York just as Ms. Lehman was to open a New York office for Happen, the marketing and design firm she works for.

So they decided that all three of them — the third is their dog, Hanna — would drive to Brooklyn, which seemed more livable and affordable than Manhattan, “and hang out there for a week to see how we felt about the area and if it was really right for us,” Ms. Lehman said.

They stayed at the trendy Hotel Williamsburg (now under new ownership and called King and Grove), took Hanna with them for drinks at the canine-friendly Lucky Dog bar, and drove all around the borough. They had a great time, and soon returned to hunt for a live-work space to rent.

Williamsburg, however, struck them as not quite right. “It’s not finished yet, it’s too early on the growth curve for us,” said Ms. Lehman, who is 44. Park Slope, which they had heard a lot about, appeared to be too family-oriented. “We drove through Park Slope and knew within 30 seconds it wasn’t for us,” Ms. Lehman said. “Every car was double parked and I thought: chaos. We don’t have kids.” But it seemed as if everyone else did.

Besides, said Mr. Iwaskiw, 52, Park Slope had “streets and streets of residential, and we wanted something more industrial-commercial.”

They contacted Paul LeMarc Brown, a senior vice president of the Corcoran Group, who was referred by a friend. “They were thinking of trying on a more traditional brownstone or town-house space,” he said.

The couple at first assumed that $4,000 to $5,000 a month would be a reasonable rental price, but soon made it $6,000 to $7,000.

A four-bedroom triplex in Brooklyn Heights, listed for $7,000, was in a narrow but lovely brownstone building. It had a wood-burning fireplace, an outdoor deck and built-in bookshelves that caught the attention of Mr. Iwaskiw, a book collector.

But they thought the rent was higher than it should be. Besides, their timing was off — they weren’t ready to move quite so soon.

They checked out a sunny three-bedroom duplex with two outdoor terraces at the Fort Greene-Clinton Hill boundary. The nine-unit building had been built as a condominium but was being rented out, Mr. Brown said. The rent was $6,000 a month.

The second story was suitable for an office, so the interior space worked well, but the couple didn’t like the building’s modern feel and small lobby. The unit looked out on the parking garage across the street. And the location seemed out of the way for visiting clients.

They loved another four-bedroom place in a Fort Greene brownstone. It was also $7,000 a month, with a beautifully renovated interior and, again, plenty of bookshelves. But it occupied the upper half of the building, and the elderly Hanna can no longer easily negotiate stairs.

“They were proactive and took it upon themselves to explore the neighborhoods they heard the most about,” Mr. Brown said. The one they kept returning to was Dumbo. Whenever they drove around there, Ms. Lehman thought, “I love it here.” They were drawn to “the strong artists’ community, where you can feel the energy,” she said. “It’s a little bit gritty, which we like, with a lot of loft, warehouse-y type spaces.” In many ways, it resembled the Distillery District. “It felt like home to us,” she said.

In Dumbo, they had noticed 220 Water Street, a new rental building that had started life in 1905 as the Hanan & Son shoe factory. “The beautiful windows caught Terry’s attention,” Ms. Lehman said, “and we wanted to see inside.” Once in, they were impressed. The soaring stone and brick lobby, topped by a skylight, was “almost the size of a basketball court,” Mr. Iwaskiw said.

The building offered quite a few layouts, but only a few were big enough to work for them. Most of the spaces were studios and one-bedrooms.

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