When poet and wit, Ogden Nash, famously penned “The Bronx? No thonx!” in 1931, he summed up contemporary opinion. Located east and northeast of Manhattan, The Bronx was known for gangs and bootleggers during Prohibition and, even up until the 1980s, was emblematic of violence and urban decay. But the Bronx’s comeback has sparked a building boom that’s turned the borough’s skyline into a sea of construction cranes. While many residents have lived here all their lives, newcomers are drawn by reasonably priced real estate, parks and opportunities for recreation (The Bronx Zoo and Yankees Stadium are here), and easy commutes to Manhattan (a whopping 13 bridges, three tunnels, and the subway connect the boroughs).

From brownstones to rowhouses, midrise condos and co-ops to sprawling single family homes, there is a residence—and a neighborhood—for every taste and budget. Leafy Riverdale is as green and suburban as New York City gets; Concourse’s historic district features elegant Art Deco and Tudor apartment complexes; and City Island is improbably a New England-style fishing village smack in the middle of Long Island Sound.

Incidentally, Nash ultimately came around: “I wrote those lines, ‘The Bronx? No thonx!’ I shudder to confess them. Now I'm an older, wiser man I cry, ‘The Bronx, God bless them!’”