A “city view,” as any New Yorker knows, often really means “overlooks a brick wall.” But there are times when that bit of broker-speak is actually not stretching the truth.

There are a handful of co-ops and condos that deliver what they promise, offering front-and-center panoramas of clock towers, streams of headlights and secret rooftop pools usually invisible to people who don’t live there.

Benefiting from cloud-high elevations or out-of-the-way locations with few other buildings of any notable height nearby, these prized apartments can be found in all five boroughs. And the buyers who can’t resist them seem just as satisfied to gaze out on distant traffic and water towers as at parks and rivers or bays.

“People like seeing activity,” said Sandhya Tidke, an associate broker with Halstead who has listings for several condos in the Bronx with city views. “They don’t want to sit there and have some placid view.”