Renting in Lower East Side

What it's like

The Lower East Side reads as two neighborhoods stacked on each other. There is the nightlife strip around Ludlow and Orchard, which is busy in a way that decides your weekends whether you take part or not, and there is everything south and east of Delancey, which is quiet, largely residential, and where most of the actual value is.

New glass buildings have gone up along the edges, and they price like Manhattan doormen buildings because that is what they are. The old stock is where the deals live, and it comes with the usual tenement bargain: character upstairs, a fifth-floor climb, a bathroom someone squeezed into a closet in 1987.

Who it suits

Anyone who wants East Village access on a slightly smaller budget and does not mind walking ten minutes to the train.

The catch

The F, M, J and Z at Delancey and Essex are one interchange, and it is the only real one down here. Everything east of Clinton is a genuine walk, and the buses across Delancey do not save you time.

Getting around

F, M, J, Z at Delancey Street and Essex Street. The B and D at Grand Street get you up Sixth Avenue. There is no crosstown option worth the name, so anything on the west side is a transfer.

What to check at the viewing

• Ask what the building does about trash. Many of these lots have no service alley and the bags go on the sidewalk out front.
• Look at the ceiling in the top-floor units for old water staining, which is the tell for a roof that gets patched rather than replaced.
• Walk the block after 10pm before you commit, especially near Ludlow and Orchard.