Trying to Figure out Where East Williamsburg is Exactly
Are you a property owner that wants to sell their condo, investment property or needs to rent an apartment or retail space in New York City? Call or text me: Sam Moritz, licensed real estate agent, 203–209–3640.
Do you know a property owner that might need real estate help? Refer me! I provide great and professional real estate services across all five boroughs.
If you’ve lived around Bushwick or Williamsburg, you’ve likely heard of the possibly-fake neighborhood of East Williamsburg.
It’s supposedly some distinct place. When I first moved to Williamsburg in 2013, my friends and I heard about East Williamsburg, but we never really found out where Williamsburg ended and East Williamsburg began.
Where really is East Williamsburg?
Eleven years later, and now working in real estate, I’ve yet to uncover a concrete answer. But I did have an experience recently which, combined with a few experiences from the past few years, has led to some further developments — and greater confusion.
Firstly, for a few years now, I have rented apartments in a building that is, 100%, geographically, in east Williamsburg. The address is at 45 Cook street, and if you check the map that I’ve attached below, you’ll see that it doesn’t get much more east than this in Williamsburg, unless you go to Bushwick, which is the next neighborhood east from the building.
But when I post listings at 45 Cook Street on StreetEasy and Zillow, the listings always show up in search results in just plain-old Williamsburg. This actually creates a bit of a situation: the apartments are really nice — mostly one bedroom units that are newly renovated, featuring exposed brick and new hardwood floors. Since they are so well-maintained, I encounter tons of renters who schedule tours, but who come to the building only to tell me: I was expecting this to be in a different location. Many renters move from other neighborhoods, and when they see a really neat apartment in Williamsburg, they click on it without considering that the Flushing JMZ station (the nearest train-line to 45 Cook Street) is far from Bedford avenue (the most prime drag in Williamsburg, near the East River waterfront — it’s about a thirty minute walk from 45 Cook street). Many renters reject these apartments on the spot because they were thinking the units would be on the Williamsburg waterfront (check the map people!).
At the moment, I do have a listing which, according to StreetEasy and Zillow, is in the mysterious realm of “East Williamsburg.” If renters want to find this listing, they must input that they are interested in “East Williamsburg” when searching on StreetEasy / Zillow — they can’t just put in Williamsburg.
The building’s address is at 413 Bushwick Avenue and it’s at the corner of Bushwick avenue and Varet street. It’s a ten minute walk from both the JMZ train station and the L train station. While you can find apartments which are a shorter walk to public transit, I think this is a very good location because it’s walking distance to both Montrose avenue, an area in Williamsburg which has a lot of cool eateries and businesses, and Jefferson Street, which is the most prime area in Bushwick.
But what’s interesting — and perplexing — is that while StreetEasy and Zillow advertise 413 Bushwick in “East Williamsburg,” GoogleMaps shows that this listing falls outside of East Williamburg.
So maybe we’re at a dead end. Google and StreetEasy / Zillow cannot agree on where East Williamsburg is.
Perhaps East Williamsburg is, after all, some sort of real estate myth, the mystery of which we may never understand completely.
Are you a property owner that wants to sell their condo, investment property or needs to rent an apartment or retail space in New York City? Call or text me: Sam Moritz, licensed real estate agent, 203–209–3640.
Do you know a property owner that might need real estate help? Refer me! I provide great and professional real estate services across all five boroughs.
