Nestled between Orange and Pineapple streets, this eight-bedroom, $5.7 million townhouse is a soothing five-story gem spanning over 5,000 square feet. The ground floor can be converted into a separate apartment, and the fourth floor is just begging for a terrace. Basked in tranquil blue, 69 Willow Street is an ideal choice for those looking to draw the shades at a different kind of home. 

SLIDESHOW: A Brooklyn Townhouse with a Hue >>

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The Barbizon/63's 12th-floor offering is a 3,500 square-foot unit with all the amenities one would expect from a building that formerly housed legends like Joan Crawford. Decked with Bolivian rosewood floors and equipped with marble baths, five terraces and an award-winning central control system, this $7.9 million unit is suitable for even the most extravagant of starlets... and their male friends as well. 

SLIDESHOW: Shine like a star at the Barbizon. >>

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Except when the news source is overseas. From Sunday's Observer -- that would be our British compatriots -- comes a story about what writer Paul Harris calls "the battle for Williamsburg's soul." In this case, Williamsburg's Fort Sumter is the newly-opened Duane Reade on Bedford Avenue, which residents see as a frighteningly-plausible indication of where Brooklyn's hippest neighborhood might be headed. (Williamsburg cigarettes notwithstanding.)

With the increasing infiltration of cooperate America into the "tranquil enclave of independent bohemians," Harris notes, comes the inevitable risk of gentrification. Harris details the process pretty well: 

Sadly for Roman and other youthful and trendy denizens, the story of neighbourhood change is one of the oldest in the Big Apple. It has a simple plot that goes something like this: an old neighbourhood has cheap rents that attract artists.That attracts the bars, shops and restaurants the newcomers like. The neighbourhood becomes cool. And safe. That attracts wealthier people, with families. The rents rise. Older inhabitants and original pioneers then leave and start again somewhere else.

That, in the end, doesn't sound too dissimilar from what the hipster invasion itself did to Williamsburg. Harris writes: 

But the hipsters and young bohemians are not entirely innocent victims in the process of change. After all, before they arrived Williamsburg was a quiet, unassuming working-class place with its fair share of problems but plenty of affordable housing.

The real clincher is that, for the former residents of Williamsburg forced out by the neighborhood's spiraling rents, a Duane Reade might actually be a good thing, not just because Duane Reade sells beer, but because the store offers a pretty significant convenience for customers.

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That's cheap, however, in comparison to this eight-room, $10.7 million Park Avenue penthouse. Located blocks from both Central Park and the East River, 1245 Park offers views of them from its sizable 2,200-square-foot wrap terrace. 

Of course that terrance could just as easily be used to peer at Park Avenue, cradling a martini and marveling at the experience of living on one of the most expensive streets in the world

SIDESHOW: A Park Avenue Penthouse with a View >>

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This 4,600-square-foot, two-story home is equipped with fourteen-foot ceilings, a rooftop terrace, a darkroom for the intrepid photographer and a firetruck-sized garage. There are a pair of Thermador stoves in the kitchen--don't burn the roast!--and a fireplace. 

For all you pyromaniacs out there, this may just be the perfect place.

SLIDESHOW: 256 Frost Street >>

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Chuck Close, who moved in in 2008, is among the new neighbors. Perhaps he could help you paint your new apartment--not that the exquisitely designed Deborah Berke interiors need it.

SLIDESHOW:What Else But a Sleek Triplex on Bond Street?

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