Lower East Side

When the tired and poor arrived here, the Lower East Side is where they lived. A legendary home of immigrants and a former epicenter of Jewish life in the United States, the Lower East Side today is one of the most happening neighborhoods in the city, with numerous bars and restaurants drawing crowds from across bridges and tunnels late into the night.

There are remnants of the neighborhood's old-school flavor; amidst the cafes and bars lies the occasional bra shop, pickle store and bialy vendor. But many are being replaced by an ever more mainstream tide of gentrification -- some declared the neighborhood "over" when Starbucks arrived in 2005.

Condos have taken this formerly down-at-the-heels neighborhood by storm. The Forward Building, at 175 E. Broadway, once home to the legendary Yiddish daily -- and later home to a Chinese church -- has been converted to condos priced as high as $5.5 million.

Today, the nabe's most prominent landmark might be Blue, a 16-story condo -- built at the site of the parking lot of Ratner's, a now defunct Jewish deli -- where, in 2005, prices ranged from $745,000 to nearly $4 million. The area's condo buildings have spread from the bustling streets just south of Houston to the eastern and southern boundaries of the neighborhood, where boutiques and amenities remain few.

New rentals have arrived, too, including the behemoth Avalon Chrystie Place, at the corner of Houston Street and the Bowery, which houses a 70,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market. Rents there started at $2,300 for a studio when the building opened back in 2005. Also nearby is the Ludlow, a 23-story luxury rental building across from Katz's Delicatessen that opened in 2007.