UPPER EAST SIDE

THE BASICS: The Gold Coast properties—mansions and huge prewars 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.

WHAT'S NEW: Woody Allen has won: 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.

BARGAIN HUNTING: “It’s possible to find good values for Gold Coast properties that need extensive work,” says Elizabeth Henry of Halstead. “East of Lexington, buyers can find bargains in new conversions.” Generally, the farther east you go—away from the subway and outside the prime public-school districts—the more prices fall, until you get to East End Avenue, where the river view sends value soaring again.

HOT SPOTS: Many New Yorkers would snicker at the thought of seeing “hot spots” and “Upper East Side” together. After all, the hottest scene most weekends is at Eli’s, the grand (and grandiose) gourmet emporium at 80th Street and Third Avenue; nightlife more or less means the evenings when the Met, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, and the excellent Neue Galerie stay open. But not to be overlooked are first-rate cabaret at the Carlyle, the scene at Elaine’s, and the tribal rites of the fur-coat set at Swifty’s.

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.