Flourishing across the East River are tempting homebuyers - and expats in particular - away from their former favourite area. And it is not only the prices that are drawing them, but a cultural vibrancy that the city's central borough has lost.
While the rest of the country has experienced a drop in property prices, the city's market has defied its many Jeremiahs by staying buoyant.
As recently as August, when the sub-prime mortgage crisis was already making daily headlines, the New York Times property supplement ran a banner headline proclaiming "The Manhattan Real Estate Slump that Wasn't".
New York City 2010
