Upper East Side
Upper East Side is known for: With its world-famous museums, elite schools, luxury boutiques, and proximity to Central Park, the family-oriented Upper East Side is home to some of the citys richest residents. And yet, just east of Lexington, the neighborhood can also be surprisingly affordable.

The Gold Coast properties—mansions and huge prewar in the Sixties and Seventies, on and near Fifth and Park Avenues—remain the domain of the seriously wealthy, for whom park views, expensive meals, Madison Avenue shopping, and proximity to most of the city’s best private schools are basic requirements. East of Lexington Avenue, young professionals and budding families live in prewar and postwar co-ops, condos, and mid-block townhouses, which run smaller than those on the Gold Coast. They’re mostly one- and two-bedrooms in walkups and postwar slabs, including lots of convertible studios.

The much-publicized Carnegie Hill debate over 47 East 91st Street has been settled, and what was going to be a sixteen-story building has been cut down to nine. Realtors are also buzzing about the Ruppert Yorkville Towers, four middle-income rentals that are being converted into fairly luxurious condos, as well as 502 Park Avenue, at 59th Street, where Donald Trump is turning the old Delmonico Hotel into apartments, restoring prewar exterior details and gutting the inside. 

Prediction: Some things are up (two-bedrooms), some are down (small rentals), but grade-A prime turf like this never loses too much ground. As in other neighborhoods, bet on the top blocks: There’s no safer wager in all New York than Fifth and Park Avenues.

Boundaries: Stretches from 59th to 96th Streets, between Central Park and the East River.

Borders: Yorkville and Midtown East

Subway stops: 4, 5, 6 to 86th Street