Neighborhood guides
Where to live, and what it really costs.
One page per neighborhood: what the blocks are actually like, the thing you find out in month two, and the rents people are asking this week off the same listings we track. No adjectives about vibrancy.
Manhattan
- East VillageCheap by Manhattan standards, loud by anyone's, and still the easiest place in the city to be twenty-five.
- Lower East SideThe same tenement stock as the East Village, a little cheaper, and further from a train.
- West VillageThe most expensive charm in the city, and the least rational street grid in it.
- ChelseaDoorman buildings, gallery blocks, and the best crosstown position in Manhattan.
- Hell's KitchenThe cheapest way to live in walking distance of Midtown, with the trade-offs that implies.
- Upper East SideThe best value per square foot in Manhattan, if you can live with the Lexington line.
- Upper West SideBig pre-war apartments, two parks, and a neighborhood that has been comfortable for a hundred years.
- HarlemBrownstone blocks, express trains, and the most apartment you will get for the money in Manhattan.
- Washington HeightsThe last place in Manhattan where a one-bedroom is a normal amount of money.
- Financial DistrictConverted office towers, aggressive concessions, and a neighborhood that empties on Saturday.
Brooklyn
- WilliamsburgManhattan prices with a Brooklyn commute, and still the first place most people look.
- BushwickSpace, loft conversions, and the largest gap in the city between a good listing and a bad one.
- GreenpointQuieter than Williamsburg, better housing stock, and one train that does not go to Manhattan.
- Bed-StuyThe best brownstone blocks in the city, at prices that still have not caught up to them.
- Crown HeightsPre-war apartment buildings, express trains, and the museum end of Eastern Parkway.
- Park SlopeThe park, the schools, and the reason people stop moving apartments every year.
Queens
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