Thought it was pretty obvious we were talking about the tenant, not the landlord. This is such weird nitpicking. When people in the US talk about apartments, they're almost always rented. The only place I've ever heard someone say "I bought my apartment" is New York, but even that is just vernacular, because the governing body is some sort of association or condo board.
I tell you this as an American who's spent enough decades on this earth hearing English, American apartments are rented 99.9% of the time.
> The only place I've ever heard someone say "I bought my apartment" is New York, but even that is just vernacular, because the governing body is some sort of association or condo board.
It's not "just vernacular", it is perfectly proper formal English. For many non-Americans – and even it seems many Americans too – calling something an "apartment" says nothing about the legal structure of building ownership.
I can find heaps of American news stories about people in the US buying apartments. Random example, this 2007 story from Fox News about the disappearance of a college student in Madison, Wisconsin [0]. It says regarding the victim that "Nolan, originally from Waunakee, had recently bought an apartment and moved to Madison from Whitewater, where she went to school". If Fox News is talking about people buying apartments in Madison, Wisconsin, then it is perfectly normal American English. Much more convincing than random Americans on HN telling me it isn't.
I guess this is the .1% then, as the article refers to her "9 apartments", which I presume were not tenanted.
For the record - to non Americans (both the majority of the world and the majority of the english speaking world) - "apartment" refers to the type of dwelling, not the ownership status. For many readers this localised hidden meaning in a common term is not obvious.
I tell you this as an American who's spent enough decades on this earth hearing English, American apartments are rented 99.9% of the time.