Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village is the area surrounded by 14th Street, Houston Street, 7th Avenue and 4th Avenue/Mercer St.

Today, we know it as the home of New York University, Cooper Union and The New School.  Historically, it's the Bohemian capital and birthplace of the Beat movement.  Mark Twain and Edgar Allen Poe lived in Greenwich Village.  Today, one could imagine being a writer while sipping cappuccino at Caffe Reggio.  In fact, I brought a client there to do exactly that (sip cappuccino) a couple months ago.

Me in Washington Square, pianist giving a public performance in the background.


Greenwich Village is hip and full of student energy.  Actually my wife attended NYU's Stern business school.  We didn't meet then hence I never hung out as a student in Greenwich Village.

Washington Square Park is the center of the Village and north of the park are expensive townhouses.  There are cobble stone streets like MacDougal Alley that transports us to an older era just by walking through the street.  Bleecker Street has numerous restaurants.

Like in most of Manhattan, condos are about 25 percent of inventory and prized.  A famous condo building in the Village in Devonshire House at 28 E 10th Street and it currently transacts at around $2000 per square foot.  During the bottom, it was as low as $1200 per sqft.  25 Fifth Avenue is another well known condo that is just north of Washington Square Park.

Many New York University parents buy apartments for their children in the Village and buildings closest to NYU command a premium.  Most are co-ops but these target a very specific niche which make their appreciation rate higher than regular co-ops.

The Greenwich at 65 W 13 Street is another top condo and I love that building.  It was undergoing renovation 3 weeks ago when I brought a client.

The median price for a condominium in the Village is about $2 million with an average price per square foot of $1700.

Similar to the West Village, most buildings are low rises and this gives the Village a lot of blue sky.


Wei Min Tan is Founder of Castle Avenue Partners and serves buyers of condominium residential property in Manhattan, New York.  He was most recently interviewed by CNN on Foreigners Buying U.S. Property.