First time homebuyers looking for a deal might want to check out a stretch of the Bronx that is setting itself up for a real estate renaissance. NY1's Shazia Khan filed the following report.

With sweeping views of the Bronx and beyond, one might say Michael Bongiovi is living the high life.

In December 2004, Bongiovi and his then-partner closed on a two bedroom, two bath, 1,200 square foot luxury coop at Executive Towers, a post-war building located at 1020 Grand Concourse.

"I'm a secretary, my former partner Bill is a social worker. This building wasn't built for people like us, this was built for very wealthy people and you know because of some changes in the Bronx in the 70s prices went down and then we swooped in and bought this for $135,000," Bongiovi said.

Yes, there are bargains to be had on the century-old Grand Concourse, mostly near Yankee Stadium. A three bedroom, two bath spacious and sunny coop at 860 Grand Course recently sold for $269,000.

"I tell all my first time homebuyers this is it if they missed the train in Harlem, if they missed the train in Astoria if they missed the train in downtown Brooklyn, there is still a train headed to the Bronx and they better catch it because where else can you be where you're two train stops to Manhattan," said Mable Ivory of Luxor Homes & Investment Realty, LLC. "And there is so much development happening here, you have shopping, you have retail, you have restaurants."

Modeled after the Champs-Elysées in Paris, the more than four-mile long Grand Concourse was built to provide Manhattanites an easy escape to the parks up north. Once the Park Avenue of the Bronx, the area like much of the borough, declined in the 1970s, but its housing, which includes one of the country's largest collections of art deco buildings, survived the downturn and is now being rediscovered by 20 and 30 somethings.

"You're getting a large, open, brightly lit, sunshine filled apartment with large rooms where almost everywhere else would be beyond the affordability of many people," said Sam Goodman, an urban planner for the Bronx Borough President's Office.

Interested buyers will find the values of the homes on the Grand Concourse have not suffered the dramatic drop sustained in other communities.

"The concourse has not had sharp declines because it never had a sharp rise in appreciation, it's been sustainable," Ivory said.

The area, however, is not without its drawbacks. It has one of highest asthma rates in the city, along with public schools that struggle to make the grade.

Still, with development booming and a growing campaign for green space, the Bronx is on its way back and you might want to invest some time and money and bank on its renaissance.