All my apartment living experience matched Walt34's (including someone keying my brand-new car in the parking lot), except for the 1200 square foot, sixth-story penthouse we rented when I worked in England. I had a housing allowance that paid most of the rent - the (very expensive) utilities were on us, but that was OK. There was a very nice garage down below, too.
The building was in the center of town, very near two bus routes to my work, and was full of elderly people who were quiet. Even if they hadn't been, the floors were concrete (and heated! Boy, did our cat love that). We were only vaguely aware, at times, of the weird couple underneath us who vacuumed at all hours.
1200 square feet seemed like it would be small, but it was so well laid-out, it felt roomy. We had stored most of our furniture but there was plenty of room for essentials.
The only issue, at times, was the single tiny elevator. When it not infrequently broke down, we had to trek up and down six flights. This was trifling to us back then but would be quite inconvenient nowadays.
