Renting in Greenpoint

What it's like

Greenpoint is low, residential, and largely intact: two and three family houses, small pre-war buildings, and a main street on Manhattan Avenue that still serves the neighborhood rather than visitors. It feels settled in a way that Williamsburg fifteen minutes south does not.

The waterfront has filled in with towers and they are priced like Williamsburg's. The rest of the neighborhood is a different and generally better proposition: more space, more light, older buildings kept up by owners who live in them.

Who it suits

People who liked the idea of Williamsburg and not the reality of it, and anyone who works in Brooklyn or Long Island City.

The catch

The G is the only train in most of the neighborhood, and the G does not enter Manhattan. Every Manhattan commute is a transfer, usually to the L at Metropolitan or the E and M at Court Square. Budget the extra fifteen minutes honestly.

Getting around

The G at Greenpoint Avenue and Nassau. The L at Bedford is a fifteen to twenty minute walk from the south end. The East River Ferry from India Street is genuinely fast to Midtown East in good weather.

What to check at the viewing

• Time the actual door-to-desk commute with the transfer, not the map estimate.
• In a house conversion, ask who the neighbors are and whether the owner is one of them.
• Ask about oil versus gas heat in the older houses, and who pays for it.