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Real Estate & Homes in New York - New York
New York
Overview
Pick a nickname: The Big Apple, The City That Never Sleeps, Sodom On The Hudson. Whatever it is called, New York City is America’s most populous, most global and most talked about city.
It is home to the sacred and the profane. The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the largest cathedral in the world, is just a quick subway ride from Times Square. New Yorkers see themselves as a breed apart, but in fact, the population is comprised of imports from more than 180 different countries; a third of New Yorkers are foreign born; almost half speak a language other than English at home.
It’s possible to stand in Times Square and watch rock stars in MTV’s studios and later that night see the New York City Opera perform “Aida” at Lincoln Center. Still, New York is not an easy place to live. It’s big, it’s crowded, it’s expensive and it’s competitive.
Fast Facts
Location: New York City is located in the southeast corner of New York State, bounded by New Jersey, Connecticut and Long Island, NY. The lower tip of Manhattan island reaches out into New York Harbor.
Area: 309 square miles
Population: 8 million
Housing Units: 3,200,912 (as of 2000 U.S. Census)
Average Annual Rainfall: 47.3 inches (about 28 inches of that is snow)
Average Annual Temperature: 54.7 degrees F
Communities
Every city is comprised of neighborhoods, but New York City carries this, like many things, to extremes. Residents often proclaim themselves as being from a neighborhood before they profess to city residency.
New York City is made up of five boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island. Each borough is likewise made up of neighborhoods, each with its own identity and real estate market.
Manhattan
Wall Street. Yes, THAT Wall Street. The city’s first district – created literally by the wall built by settlers to keep the indigenous Indians out – today is the epicenter of the nation’s economy; home to the New York Stock Exchange and the scar left by the loss of the World Trade Center.
Harlem. Harlem is hot … and not just the music at the legendary Apollo Theater. There is growth, expansion and an influx of new, affluent residents, many seeking and finding housing and office space bargains.
Greenwich Village. Long a magnet for counter-culturalists as far back as the late 1800s, Greenwich Village has been the locus of change and its residents have been catalysts of reform. Like many places in the city, the Village became too expensive for the people who lived there and they moved on. It is now home to some of the city’s nicest and most expensive residences.
East Village. Many of those who left Greenwich Village settled here. Housing has been a source of concern for many years as students, artists and the well-off young professionals have challenged for places to live.
SoHo. Its name means “South of Houston Street” (pronounced HOUSE-ton). A close relative of the Village, the rather expensive SoHo of today is home to many folks who used to be called Yuppies, some mega-chic restaurants and a lot of shopping. To the south are Chinatown and Tribeca
Tribeca. More New York shorthand, this time for “Triangle Below Canal (street)”. This former commercial district has become residential in the last 40 years; home to many actors artists and the Tribeca Film Festival, making some call it Hollywood on the Hudson.
Upper West Side. Artists and actors of all financial stripes call this home. So does Lincoln Center and the AOL/Time Warner complex at Columbus Circle. The Donald has a high rise in this neighborhood between Central Park on the East and the Hudson River on the west. To the north is Morningside Heights and Columbia University.
Upper East Side. The street names say it all: Park Avenue. Fifth Avenue. Madison Avenue. All of these trump Boardwalk on the real world monopoly board. Same for shopping: Tiffany’s. Barney’s. Armani. Versace. Prada. Bring the gold card.
Lower East Side. South of the East Village and east of SoHo, this neighborhood is an eclectic mix of residential and commercial. Its history traces to immigrants living in the city’s most notorious slums, quite the contrast to the gentrification going on today.
Chinatown. Home to America’s largest Asian community, this neighborhood, ironically, is also home to New York’s City Hall. Hurly-burly shopping and every kind of Asian food imaginable.
Little Italy. Its name says it all. The Feast of San Gennaro each fall fills the narrow streets of this working class neighborhood.
Gramercy. Comfortable and popular residential neighborhood. Of late it has become part of New York’s high tech enclave known as Silicone Alley. Pricey but nice is this neighborhood north of the East Village.
Chelsea. North of Greenwich Village, chic Chelsea’s culturally-diverse population fills its many brownstones and lofts. Many shops and even more clubs and restaurants.
Meat Packing District. This Chelsea neighbor really was the slaughterhouse of the city. Now it is among the hottest of any hot spot in the city, including places to live; an area in transition.
Midtown. This IS the middle of Manhattan (in every sense of the word) and has a little bit of everything. Diverse housing is available, some even is affordable. This also is what the rest of the world sees of New York City: Rockefeller Center, Bloomingdale’s, St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Central Park is its northern entrance.
Hell’s Kitchen. The section of the city began life as the squalid tenements filled primarily with German and Irish immigrants. Located between the Theater District and the Hudson River, today it is a neighborhood in transition; there is a proliferation of luxury apartments.
Times Square. Even a few years ago, Times Square – even though they dropped the ball here on New Year’s Eve – was the city’s seediest neighborhood. Now it has a Disney Store; the change has been that dramatic.
Brooklyn
Cross the Brooklyn Bridge and you are in the other New York. If it were a city separate from the rest of New York, Brooklyn would be the fourth largest in the U.S. with 2.5 million people. Often best remembered for what it has lost – the baseball Dodgers and the Giants – Brooklyn is a collection of neighborhoods: Coney Island, Bensonhurst, Williamsburg, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Sunset Park, Park Slope, Greenpoint, each with its own, usually ethnic, identity.
Calling Brooklyn Manhattan’s bedroom may be accurate, but it is not fair. Brooklyn is much more, and there is a revival afoot.
Queens
Affordable is how many people describe this borough, the most ethnically-diverse county in the U.S., and property revitalization continues as Manhattan rents climb.
Attached to the western end of Long Island, Queens is home to 2.2 million residents, many from elsewhere. Astoria is home to the largest Greek population outside Greece, and Richmond Hill has the largest number of Sikhs outside India.
Queens is vitally important to New York and anyone coming here on business or pleasure. It is home to both LaGuardia and Kennedy airports. It’s also home to the New York Mets and Shea Stadium, and the U.S. Open Tennis Center in Flushing.
Bronx
Located above the northern end of Manhattan, The Bronx is a dichotomy. While it is home to Yankee Stadium, the world-famous Bronx Zoo, Fordham University and 1.3 million people, many of those people live in some of the city’s neediest neighborhoods. But the Bronx, in many ways, is home to the essential New Yorker. Woody Allen, Billy Joel, Carl Reiner, Neil Simon, Al Pacino and Jerry Orbach were born here.
The Bronx is also home to the beginnings of hip-hop culture and music. And, yes, the derisive Bronx Cheer was created here. Even in this densely populated borough, about a quarter of the Bronx is parkland.
Staten Island
This former pastoral farm setting has become a working-class residential locale. It is the third largest of the boroughs, but has only 5 percent of the city’s residents.
Staten Island is home to St. John’s University, Wagner College and the College of Staten Island, so higher education offers numerous employment opportunities.
Attractions
Dozens of guidebooks have been written about what to do and see in New York, and none can ever be complete; there is just so much to do. The very short list includes:
Art museums like the Metropolitan, Guggenheim, the newly refurbished Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney and hundreds of small galleries.
Those with a nautical bent can visit the South Street Seaport or the USS Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum.
Specialized museums abound in New York. It is home to the Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Television and Radio, the Museum of American Financial History, the Jewish Museum and the Japan Society.
And, of course, there are the icons of New York City like the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Bronx Zoo, Radio City Music Hall, the United Nations, Grand Central Terminal and Empire State Building.
Recreation & Leisure
Easily the most recognizable public space in America is found in the middle of Manhattan. Central Park is a sprawling 843-acre greenspace that embraces everything from softball games to Shakespeare. In the past maligned as unsafe, Central Park has improved and truly is a great place for families.
New York City is an athletic place. Its roster of major league sports teams includes baseball’s Yankees and Mets, the Giants and Jets of the National Football League, the Knickerbockers of NBA fame, the NHL’s Rangers and the MetroStars represent the city in Major League Soccer. The Liberty is New York City’s entry in the Women’s NBA, and New York is large enough to also host two minor league baseball teams. And, don’t forget the New York Storm … a professional cricket squad.
The city also is home to the New York City Marathon and college basketball’s National Invitational Tournament.
But, recreation and leisure in New York City is not just about watching others. You can participate, and many do. New York City has 1,700 parks and recreation facilities on 28,000 acres. You can enjoy yourself on 14 miles of beaches, in 53 outdoor pools, 614 baseball fields, 13 golf courses, six ice rinks and at four zoos.
And, check out Chelsea Piers. This unique complex on former marina piers on the Hudson River includes everything from a skate park to bowling alleys, from golf driving ranges to a rock climbing wall.
Dining
New York is as much about dining as it is fashion, theater or the Yankees. There are an estimated 20,000 restaurants in the city, with numerous eateries opening and closing daily. Among them are:
Chelsea Market: Converted Nabisco Factory now is home to a variety of restaurants, numerous food shops and mega-chef Emeril Lagasse’s “Emeril Live!” TV show.
Bar Americain: celebrity chef Bobby Flay’s third outpost in the city with 200 seats and the chance to see Bobby cook in the open kitchen.
Katz’s Deli: this is where the infamous “faking it” scene from When Harry Met Sally was filmed; monstrous sandwiches so bring your appetite.
Daniel’s: French, stylish, 20,000-bottle wine list and a glass-enclosed “skybox” for a close-up look at the kitchen in action.
Lombardi’s: true brick oven pizza in, where else, but Little Italy.
Sardi’s: A New York classic for pre- or post-theater dinner.
The Four Seasons: classic American cuisine in an amazing setting created by Mies van der Rohe and Phillip Johnson.
Tom’s Diner: pretty normal food, but you will recognize the exterior from its many appearances on Seinfeld.
DT/UT: (Downtown/Uptown) tres chic dessert bar and coffee house with other light fare. Where else can you get Inside S’mores or gourmet Rice Crispy Treats?
And any of Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s restaurants: Mercer Kitchen, JoJo, Jean Georges, Vong, 66, Spice Market, V Steakhouse or Nougatine.
The Arts
This is the home of Broadway, THE Broadway. Period.
This is the home to not just the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but also the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, the Frick, the Cloisters and dozens of other, smaller museums and galleries.
This is the home of dance in America. Found in New York are the Alvin Ailey American Dance Company, the School of American Ballet, the Martha Graham Dance Company, the Paul Taylor Dance Company and the Joyce Theater.
And, this is the home of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. In this one grand, 16.3-acre complex are 12 resident arts organizations. Located on the Upper West Side, Lincoln Center is home to the New York City Ballet, the New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Housing
If there is a shared quest in New York, it is housing. If you have an apartment, you seek a bigger one or one in a different neighborhood or one with a doorman. If you rent, you want to buy. If you own, you want a better, trendier address. And, everyone wants more space and more closets.
And, everyone is looking for a bargain. Bring your horseshoe and your rabbit’s foot.
New York City offers a variety of housing options, from studio apartments that redefine “cozy” to single, two and three-family free-standing homes. The Bronx is home to Co-Op City, what many claim is the world’s largest apartment complex. Conversely, Staten Island has more homeowners than renters, the only such place in the city.
Like life in the city itself, housing here is different. Many residents are as likely to buy an apartment as they are to rent. More and more old commercial and industrial space is being converted to housing. People, who would normally live alone, seek roommates to make an apartment affordable. And, some folks really do read the obituaries in search of open apartments.
As with any major city, many of those who work in New York live elsewhere. Called “the bridge and tunnel crowd”, many live in northern New Jersey, much of Long Island, southern Connecticut and about halfway up New York State’s Hudson Valley and commute to the city each day.
Employment
If you have skill, and even if you don’t, there is someone in New York City with a job for you. The economy is that diverse and that large. In fact, New York City has a gross metropolitan product of $500 billion. If that were translated into gross domestic product, New York City would rank 16th in the world. New York also is home to more Fortune 500 companies than any other city in the world, and has almost 650,000 companies open for business.
One of the most dominant business categories in the city is financial services. This is the home of the New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange and the New York Board of Trade.
Despite continuing decentralization, New York remains the center of media in the U.S. The major TV networks call it home and it has the largest, and many say most influential, newspapers in the nation: The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. Many major magazines are published here, and the city has a growing film production center in Astoria, Queens. Advertising is synonymous with the city’s Madison Avenue.
As Midwest farm girls move to Hollywood to be discovered, Midwest boys and girls who want to have their own couture line move to New York City. Fashion Week, held here early each September, is one part Mardi Gras, one part Super Bowl and all in well tailored clothes.
The medical, culinary, art, entertainment and tourism industries also prevail.
Education
If New York City weren’t known as the fashion capital and the entertainment capital or the restaurant capital, it might be called the education capital of America. The city has more than 1.1 millions students enrolled in 1,524 schools. New York City also has an impressive number of private pre-, elementary and high schools, as well as some preparatory schools.
In addition to its massive public school system, New York is home to 41 colleges and a variety of specialized private propriety schools. In many instances, these institutions are at the head of the class.
Among the world class institutions in New York are Columbia University, New York University, Pace, St. Johns, Fordham, and the City University of New York. There also are specialized colleges: Fashion Institute of Technology, the College of Aeronautics, the New York School of Interior Design and the School of Visual Arts.
Then there is Julliard, the renowned school for music, dance and theater.
New York is also a great place for the adult learner. The New School, located in Greenwich Village, offers numerous programs. YM/YWCAs offer numerous classes, as do churches and synagogues, museums, cultural centers and other community organizations.
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