West Village

LOCATION

The West Village is everything west of Sixth Avenue, from Houston to 14th street. Essentially, the West Village is the original Greenwich Village. The need for the modifier ("West") is a relatively new thing resulting from the emergence of the Eastern counterpart, the East Village.

There is a certain degree of ambiguity as to whether the West Village includes the area around 5th avenue and University Place (aka the Central Village). Our panel of experts maintains that it doesn't.

APARTMENTS & REAL ESTATE

To be fair, some reasons for that do not have much to do with with preservation - they are much simpler. Because of a geological quirk, the "rock" foundation, easily reachable in Midtown and Downtown, is actually very deep here. As a result, building too high would either be prohibitively expensive or outright dangerous.

The end result is a neighborhood dominated by 19th and early 20th century brownstone and low-rise apartment buildings.

Selected Rental Buildings

• 140 Waverly Place (West Village) {3 available apts}
  A 23-unit 6-story prewar elevator rental building
• 2 Bank Street (West Village) {2 available apts}
  A pre-war walk-up building.
• 21 Bedford Street (West Village) {1 available apt}
  A walk-up building.
• 31-33 Bedford Street (West Village) {5 available apts}
  A low-rise walk-up building.
• 92 Grove Street (West Village) {1 available apt}
  A pre-war low-rise elevator building.

See all West Village Rental Apartment Buildings (100 buildings)

Selected No-Fee Rental Listings

• $2,900 1-Bedroom at 322 West 14th Street posted 02/Jul/2009.
• $4,400 2-Bedroom at West Coast 95 posted 02/Jul/2009.
• $2,940 Studio at Morton Square available 15/Jul/2009 posted 02/Jul/2009.
• $2,150 1-Bedroom at 31-33 Bedford Street posted 01/Jul/2009.
• $1,800 Studio at 189 Waverly Place available 02/Jul/2009 posted 01/Jul/2009.

See all West Village No Fee Rental Apartments (79 total)

Condo & Co-op Buildings

• 163 Charles (163 Charles Street, West Village)
  A mid-rise building.
• 33-37 Grove Street (West Village)
  A pre-war elevator building.
• One Jackson Square (122 Greenwich Avenue, West Village)
  Each of the 11 floors independently waves in and out, creating a flow of convexities and concavities along the surface. The building is LEED-certified (LEED = Leadership in En....

See all West Village Condo Apartment Buildings (15 buildings)

• 10 Christopher Street (West Village)
  A pre-war elevator building.
• 88 Charles Street (West Village)
  A pre-war walk-up building.

See our list of West Village Co-op Apartment Buildings

DEMOGRAPHICS

Population stands at about 72,000. Although the West Village used to be visibly gay, in the last few years young families (often with children) started to overtake as the neighborhood's most "visible" constituency.

As far as the social makeup is concerned, the majority could easily qualify as affluent. The real estate prices here are among the highest in Manhattan, not to mention other boroughs.

In the past, the area was considered a natural place to live for intellectuals of all kinds (and for the literary type in particular), but nowadays it would be difficult to find any full-time writers who could afford living there. Stockbrokers and advertising execs would probably have a much better shot.

SAFETY

Generally, the West Village is safe. It is one of the most tolerant neighborhoods in New York and beyond. The West Village doesn't have any public housing which takes away many of the associated problems.

With that said, certain blocks, particularly on/around Christopher street and particularly at night, may be a bit sketchy.

NAME ORIGINS

Greenwich Village used to be a village (back in the days when Wall Street actually had a wall). The "west" modifier was added later to distinguish the neighborhood from its eastern neighbors.