Affordable Gay Neighborhoods

[Buckmark]

Here is a mildly interesting article about affordable gay neighborhoods in some of America's larger and more expensive cities.   I'm not sure that some of the alternatives are so appealing:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/06/19/real_estate/gay-cities/index.htm

I know many of you here reside in these cities (e.g. Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York).

DISCUSS!

[mecch]

Huh, the Hudson Valley is a NYC "neighborhood".  Okidokey.  I know a NY lesbian couple who bought a vast stone house in Nesebar Bulgaria for a song.  Surely "Bulgaria's Dubrovnik" is the new hot gay neighborhood for NYC?

[Miss Philicia]

Dupont Circle has been eclipsed by Logan now in DC?

http://www.borderstan.com/06/poll-wheres-the-dc-gay-neigborhood-in-2011/

As far as Philadelphia goes they missed out on the growing gay presence in both East Passyunk (where I live) and Northern Liberties. Not to mention Washington Square West is in Center City though they list them separately.

[OneTampa]

Interesting that the word "affordable" is listed in the same context as gay neighborhoods as the general chat has been those areas are among the most expensive.  Good to see that there are reasonable prices out there.

[Miss Philicia]

Well, of course, "reasonable price" is a relative term not to mention any such enclave quickly gentrifies and the prices go up very quickly. I'm now in my 23rd year of urban living and quick gentrification has happened in every neighborhood I've moved into, forcing me to move out when the prices go up. I've had five different apartments in that time span.

[mecch]

Yeah so true. And some of my gay buddies really hit the jackpot playing the real estate investment in gentrifying neighborhoods game.  I never had the cash for down payments.  These were invariably couples, professionals, and mostly with one who has comfortable parents or an inheritance at the right time that provided the first down payments.  One couple did it really well through East Village, Park Slope, and FlatIron (ok the last wasn't so gay) and ended up with many millions in net worth by their mid 40's. 
Meanwhile I know some hanger ons still renting in the slope and paying up to 4x! their original rent, taken after college. 
Dreading that gentrification is going to hit my neighborhood in my Swiss city soon.  I've looked, impossible to find anything now like what I have for less than double. And in Geneva it would be 3x. 

[Miss Philicia]

Oh sure, if I had had the money I could have made a fortune several times over. That's five separate times in two cities that I spotted a neighborhood before it became gentrified. In fact, the first place I lived in Clinton Hills (downtown Brooklyn) in the mid-90's was actually in the upstairs apartment of these two older leather daddies that had enough for a down payment. In fact, they were going to buy this other crappy place and my roommate went with them house hunting and convinced them to buy this other place -- it was in a historic district but needed work. They got a grant for facade work, and did some interior work but nothing like needed to be done, yet in the span of 11 years they sold the place for something like $1.6 million. I think they payed $400,000 for it, but the two rental units on the upper floors payed the mortgage costs. Of course, instead of taking that money and reinvesting it either in the property or another one they spent it on meth and then split up when one discovered the temptations of manhunt.

[mecch]

Utterly dire!
But there are some nice stories too.  One of my landladies doubled my rent just ilke that. I was priced out and had to move. That was pretty shitty. On the other hand, she was a trini hairdresser who had bought the brownstone for nothing in the dogeared 70's and was planning to sell and retire back to Trinidad a millionairess, so the gentrification game worked well for her and her family! 

These sort of cheaply or thinly reported lifestyle reports aren't all that reliable for trends nor for what "affordable" means.  The NYT is the worst offender of course.

I dunno but back when I moved to NYC in the mid 80's people had a formula. It was "your rent should be 1/3 your take home salary".  That always seemed like a good way to estimate "affordable" but alas I'm sure its a ancient history pipe dream for many a working stiff in completely gentrified cities like NYC and SF.

This is why Berlin took off over 10 years ago, and supposedly, the rents are STILL affordable there. German salaries are kinda low, too, however. 

[mecch]

The guy who wrote the Erik Rhodes obit wrote an obit about a gay nyc therapist and would be author who killed himself.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/fashion/the-life-and-death-of-the-therapist-bob-bergeron.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&hp
There was a frank consideration of money and no longer unaffordable lifestyle expectations - after "divorce" - as perhaps a contributing factor:


One thing Mr. Bergeron didn’t discuss much was his relationship with Mr. Boute. Though the two were involved for 17 years, friends said it was an unhappy union for quite a while before it ended; that the main thing uniting Mr. Bergeron and Mr. Boute was a city that became more and more expensive to live in, a place where Mr. Bergeron’s annual income of around $150,000 was barely enough to support the kind of life he led.

“I think a lot of what kept them together was expenses,” said Walter Rappaport, a close friend of Mr. Bergeron who lives in Miami. “I think neither of them could have afforded their lifestyle if they weren’t together.”