(Photo: James Leynse/Corbis)

The West Village and The Meatpacking District
Buzz may have helped build the far West Village, but an economic downturn will prove that it lives up to its hype. Though it’s now one of the most popular and expensive places to live, thanks in part to high-profile projects such as the Richard Meier towers, prices will slip but not slide, and may even hold steady. For starters, like the rest of the West Village, it’s got a healthy mix of housing stock (from gleaming new condos to loft conversions) and residents (singles to families, celebrities to old homesteaders). This combination keeps it insulated from a mass exodus and extreme price fluctuations. Plus, like residents of Park and Fifth Avenues, newcomers here have paid staggering sums. “When people make that kind of investment, especially when there are a lot of them, the area’s protected,” explains downtown expert Shaun Osher of the Newcastle Realty Group. For the most part, the entire Village is a safe bet, and historically, this has proven true. Residential prices here fell 10 percent—annoying but not deadly—in the early to mid-nineties, according to the appraisal firm Miller Samuel; they actually rose 5 percent, sometimes even more, after 9/11. As is usual in Manhattan, condos are generally safer than co-ops, but not much more, as West Village boards are known to be persnickety about finances. The chanciest investments may be studios and one-bedrooms, many of which house NYU students and recent graduates with overstretched budgets. Another worry? The million-dollar marquee studios, which two power brokers simply describe as “insane.”

Risk Factor: 3.0