CLICK THE MENU ITEM ABOVE FOR A MORE COMPLETE HISTORY OF THE FOLLOWING AREAS:
THE WEST VILLAGE: There is no neighborhood like the West Village (Greenwich
Village, the village). Its a diverse neighborhood that has a life of itself,
flowing with artists and musicians, and actors.
In the mid-19th century, however, as the city spread north of 14th Street,
the Village became the province of immigrants, bohemians, and students (New
York University [NYU], today the nation's largest private university, was
planted next to Washington Square in 1831). Its politics were radical and
its attitudes tolerant, which is one reason it became a home to such a large
lesbian and gay community.
ABOUT SOHO: Starting at Houston (pronounced how-ston) Street, walk south down Broadway, stopping to browse the stores and vendor stands between Houston and Prince streets. The sole remaining museum on the block is the New Museum of Contemporary Art, devoted exclusively to living artists. Within the Prada store at 575 Broadway, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas has created a high-tech setting for the Italian house of fashion. Several art galleries share these blocks as well, most notably at 568 Broadway, which houses 10 galleries, and the trendy Armani Exchange store on the ground level.
ABOUT CHELSEA: As Broadway marches north and west across Manhattan it Chelseaforms a series of squares beginning with Union Square at 14th Street. The square itself hosts a popular Greenmarket, and before Christmas, a crafts market. In this neighborhood are some of the city's trendiest restaurants lining Park Avenue South up to 23rd Street. Madison Square, the site of the original Madison Square Garden, is dominated by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Tower and the Flatiron Building (20-stories and triangular). It was once the end of "ladies mile," the city's most fashionable shopping district along Broadway and Sixth Avenue; this area still has great shopping. To its east is Gramercy Park, a small, fenced park acessible only to residents of its surrounding townhouses. Theodore Roosevelt was born in this neighborhood.
RISING RENTAL PRICES
By Noelle Knox, USA TODAY
Updated 5/30/2006 11:30 AM ET
If you're a renter trying to save for a down payment, or you're just trying
to move out of your parents' home, it'll likely get harder this year. Rents
are rising faster than they have in six years.
Apartment rents are expected to increase 5.3% this year — about double
last year's increase — the National Association of Realtors says. That's
the highest jump since 2000, when the Internet boom created lots of jobs
for young adults out of college. In April, rising rents were largely to blame
for a sharp jump in consumer inflation.\
"
This is going to be the highest rental increase year since 2000, and it's
going to be a broad-based increase in rents, not just limited to a few markets," said
Hessam Nadji, who manages research for Marcus & Millichap, a real estate
firm in Northern California.
"
Renters are already facing higher energy prices and relatively moderate wage
growth," Nadji says. "This is going to really squeeze a lot of
households."
No one needs to tell Rosa Shephard. The $1,600 rent she pays for a two-bedroom
apartment in Laguna Beach, Calif., will rise by $100 a month this Friday.
It's a 6.3% increase, and Shephard's salary as an administrative assistant
isn't rising as much, so she's trying to find a cheaper place to live.
"
I'm trying to find a one-bedroom for $1,200," says Shephard, 53. "It
just doesn't exist."
There are four driving forces:
• Job growth. U.S. businesses have generated 4 million new jobs in the
past two years. New hires typically look for rental property.
•
Rising home prices. From 1980 to 2000, the median price of a home was 12
times higher than the annual average rent. By this spring, it was 21 times
higher, Nadji said. The median-priced home now costs $223,000, making the
American dream a fantasy for more renters, whose competition for apartments
then drives up rents. There's little relief in sight in such areas as Phoenix
and South Florida, where home prices soared more than 30% in the first quarter
of this year over the same quarter last year.
•
Condo conversions. When the housing market was at its blazing peak, many
investors who owned apartment buildings kicked out tenants and sold the units
as condos. One out of three apartment buildings sold last year were converted
into condos for sale. That took 191,400 apartments off the market, according
to the NAR. In addition, the number of new apartment buildings under construction
is down this year.
•
Hurricane Katrina. About half the 100,000 displaced families in the New Orleans
area haven't returned. Most of them were renters, says Lawrence Yun, an NAR
economist, and "that's putting additional pressure on rental units throughout
the country." LOW VACANCY
Low vacancy may bring higher rents
Markets with the lowest apartment vacancies in 2006*:
Fort Lauderdale 2.7%
New York-Manhattan 2.8%
Las Vegas
3.0%
Los Angeles 3.0%
Orange County 3.1%
U.S. average 5.3%
* year-end forecast
Source: Marcus & Millichap Research Services
Copyright 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
