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I'm in the same boat. Spiders, snakes, rats, whatever, don't bother me. Roaches though, and I turn into a 5 year old girl and start jumping on the nearest table.
Honestly it's just a crapshoot in New York. I've lived in a pre-war building for almost 4 years now and have literally not once seen a roach. Even on the street near me, I can't think of the last time I saw one. One of my friends moved into a relatively new place (maybe 5 years old) downtown and has at least one a week.
The best you can do is seal up any holes, lay out traps, and keep your fingers crossed.
My two cats never did. And worse, with cats you must be triply careful about extermination. The poisons are far more dangerous to them than to us since we use showers and they use their tongues.
If you have a landlord or a management company who will provide regular extermination for the PIGSTIES, you can remain bug free just by keeping scrupulously clean, puffing boric acid in cabinets and putting down some baits like Combat. We have regular extermination but I have not had to have my apartment done in 4 years. That's the ideal situation. Maybe every 6 months I have seen a roach.