OUTLOOK

The basics: Roughly half the available spaces near the first stop of the L train are lofts, but railroad apartments (450 to 1,500 square feet) are more common in general.

What's new: Williamsburg Gardens, at 250 South 2nd Street, and Bedford Court, at 150 South 1st Street (both in the $300,000-to-$700,000 range), are condo buildings catering to first-time buyers. Tellingly, for a young neighborhood that's starting to mature, 158 Broadway's apartments all have two bedrooms. Busta Rhymes recently bought a million-dollar-plus apartment at 60 Broadway, an old musical-instrument factory.

Bargain hunting: The farther from the Bedford and North 7th Street epicenter you get, the better the deal—specifically, the farther you go east toward Bushwick or north into Greenpoint. If you go about two stops past Williamsburg proper into Bushwick, a 42-unit building in a former tea factory has lofts renting for $1,100 to $1,800.

Prediction: How the waterfront is developed—park or garbage-processing plant?—will determine the area's long-term fortunes. Expect prices and rents to keep climbing, as young singles and artists are joined by traditional first-time buyers. “Services are within walking distance, so especially the area north of the Williamsburg Bridge has become attractive,” says Insignia Douglas Elliman's Helene Luchnick. That means larger apartments are more in demand. Wild card: If the 2012 Olympics come to town, Williamsburg will be home to archery, beach volleyball, and all sorts of new construction.

— Profile from the March 10, 2003 cover story of New York Magazine