Lauren Stone and her boyfriend, Jordan Wright, made a big commitment two years ago. They put a pre-construction deposit on a unit at a mid-rise K. Hovanian project to be built on the waterfront in North Bergen in Hudson County, and decided to wait to move in together until their first home was ready for occupancy. Stone, a Manhattan-based publicist from Saddle River who is now 26, and 27-year-old Wright, from Mahwah, who works in his family's car dealerships, had done their home-buying homework. "Anytime it's your first purchase, you're very excited," said Stone. "But you want it to be a smart purchase. We figured there's only so much water property left. And why spend money on Manhattan when I can get something like this here in New Jersey?" They chose a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at The Views at Hudson Pointe, a community of 146 luxury condominiums with two or three bedrooms, priced from $500,000 to more than $1 million. Stone and Wright's 1,200 square-foot unit cost in the mid $600,0000 range. In addition to the price, which the young couple found compared favorably to those of Manhattan, they were sold on the inclusion of two parking spots in the purchase price. And the fixtures and finishes are top of the line. Nelson Chen, head of the Chen Agency in Fort Lee, a firm that specializes in New Jersey Gold Coast properties, said the K. Hovnanian project is one of the first to come to fruition that embraces what he calls "the whole lifestyle concept." "When you go into the lobby of The Views, it's very clubby," he said. "There's a residents lounge, a residents theater. It's about having the spa life where you live." The Watermark a project being developed by Florida-based WCI next door to The Views, feels even more like a "high-end country club," said Chen, and expects to welcome its first occupants next month. Stone and Wright were well aware that their new home would take about two years to complete. About once a month, they would drive down to North Bergen and look around the construction site to see how things were going. "We wanted to see all the little changes they were doing every month," Stone said. And how does the declining real estate market affect Gold Coast developments that take a couple of years to complete? "Clearly all these new places will lose or have lost a certain percentage of buyers," said Chen. "It's still a fraction of the total. On this type of product, if you price it correctly, you'll sell it. That probably means it [the selling price] is 10 percent lower than the high number in 2005." Chen said the buyers who are trying to renegotiate their contracts or get out of them tend to be investors who had not planned to occupy the units themselves. "There are a lot of those people who cannot afford to close and hold the property for any length of time," he said. "But the young people who want to move in there, they are so psyched, so excited. The apartments are new, sleek, with all the bells and whistles. What's not to like?" That's how Stone and Wright feel, now that they've closed and moved in. "The location is perfect for us," said Stone. "My new commute is like a dream. It used to be an hour and a half. Now it's 45 minutes. And we love the vibe of the place." As for whether they've concerned that the market slump will erode their property values, Stone said, "That didn't worry us at all. We plan on being here five or six years, and the market will go up. We felt we got a great deal on the property long term." And do they regret the two years they spent watching their home slowly develop? Said Stone: "It was definitely worth the wait."