July 15, 1982

IN less difficult economic times Rick and Nurit Amdur would be settling into their new, larger apartment about now, someplace where their 13-month-old son, Ariel, could romp and where there would be a modicum of privacy for Mom and Dad. The Amdurs, who are in the importing business, rented their two-bedroom apartment in the East 80's five years ago, expecting to move when a child came along. Like many couples in their situation, they assumed that if they continued to progress in their careers and managed to put some money aside, a move would be the next logical step. ''With what has happened to the money situation now it just doesn't make sense for us to move,'' Mrs. Amdur said. ''If you have something saved and it is working for you in investments or whatever, you hate to take it out. And if you have to borrow money at 18 percent, it can really hurt your cash flow to a point where you couldn't do anything else for a year or more.'' Instead of moving, the Amdurs decided before the baby was born to use some of their savings to make their 1,000-square-foot apartment more space-efficient. They spent $3,000 enclosing an outdoor terrace with glass, effectively adding another room. They plan to install small desk units in their large bedroom to make up for the office space that has become their child's room.

President Reagan has written a letter to King Fahd of Saudi Arabia asking for help in finding an Arab haven for the 6,000 fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization now in west Beirut, Administration officials said today. Mr. Reagan was understood to have urged that Syria be asked to take most of the soldiers and that other Arab countries take the rest. Administration officials said the main stumbling block to resolving the crisis in Beirut was finding an Arab country willing to accept the forces. The officials said the United States, which had been involved in the Beirut negotiations through a special envoy, Philip C. Habib, believed that it was up to the Arab states themselves to decide where the Palestinian troops should go.

The New York State Court of Appeals refused yesterday to block the transfer of 1,000 convicts to the newly converted prison facility at the Pilgrim Psychiatric Center in West Brentwood, L.I. The first four busloads of prisoners from the Queensboro Correctional Facility in Long Island City arrived less than three hours after the court's ruling was issued at 3:30 P.M. The transfer is part of a plan to shift inmates to newly built cellblocks in vacant buildings at four state mental institutions and thus relieve overcrowding in the state's existing prisons. Officials of the State Department of Correctional Services had delayed the transfer while Judge Bernard S. Meyer, an associate judge on the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court, held a hearing in Manhattan. The judges then conferred by telephone and later issued their 6-to-0 ruling from Albany. Judge Hugh R. Jones did not participate.

New car sales by the Big Three auto makers fell 14.8 percent in the July 1-10 period, the companies reported. G.M.'s sales were down 18.9 percent, Chrysler's 15.9 percent, and Ford's 3.7 percent. It was the third consecutive period in which sales levels were below those of a year earlier. Analysts cited a lack of buyer incentives. (Page D1.) A new supplementary appropriations bill was approved by Senate and House conferees. There were no assurances from the White House, however, that the $5.5 billion measure would not be vetoed as inflationary, as its two predecessors were. (A1.)

New York City's decision this week to halt negotiations with one of the companies seeking a cable television franchise underscores the fact that politics continue to pervade the franchising process. At the same time, the factors that led to the decision suggest that the once boundless optimism about the profitability of cable television's future is giving way to more sober assessments about the costs of wiring such cities as New York. In a letter made public this week, the city told the Cablevision Systems New York City Corporation that, because no agreement had been reached with the company after more than six months of talks, the city would instead seek to get the five other companies seeking franchises to agree on a formula for wiring the areas originally assigned to Cablevision. In a sense, Cablevision has become the victim of its own political strategy. Because cable franchises are deemed so valuable and the fights to win them are so competitive, many companies have proved willing to submit bids to cities that make more political than economic sense.