East Orange

Built up in the early 1900s as a streetcar suburb for Manhattan professionals and shaped by generations of artists, families, and creatives, East Orange has always been an inside-the-know move. Just 15 minutes from Penn Station and steps from three rail stations, it offers the kind of architecture — Tudor revivals, prewar co-ops, brick rowhouses, and grand Victorians — that's nearly impossible to find at this price anywhere else in the region. Tree-lined streets in Presidential Estates, the cultural pull of nearby Newark and Montclair, and the quiet revival of the Brick Church corridor make it a neighborhood that rewards people who look closely. East Orange isn't trying to be the next anything. It's becoming what it already is, faster.