RoofSwap's Top Neighborhoods in New York Part 2
Nicole Frank is one of the leading experts of the home exchange community. Nicole has been an avid home exchanger since childhood and has completed dozens exchanges around the world with her family. Nicole’s "Key to Home Exchange" appears weekly on RoofSwap.com with do’s and don’t regarding house swapping and tips and advice on a wide array of travel topics. Have a question for Nicole or want to share some insight of your own? Visit Member Forum section and post your comments and questions.
Roofswappers looking for the best possible New York CIty neighborhood for their next home exchange vacation got a helping hand from Nate Silver. He's the brilliant statistician hired by New York Magazine to rank areas in each NYC "boro" for livability. In a past Key to Home Exchange we took a selective look at the top NYC areas as listed by the magazine. Other part of the City might be more appealing to most roofswappers. We will look at which other neighborhoods, where RoofSwap.com has lots of choice listings, could be prefect for you.
ROOFSWAPPERS' PRIORITIES FOR TARGETING A NEW YORK CITY SWAP AREA
New York magazine rated its top 50 NYC neighborhoods for livability. They asked for an objective analysis weighting factors like the cost of real estate, nightlife, schools safety, shopping and housing stock. The rankings are aimed at City residents who are buying or renting apartments, not tourists or home swappers.
The main issue that drove certain neighborhoods down in the top 50 list was the cost of real estate. Even during the aftermath of a housing bubble, the average cost per square foot for a Manhattan apartment is still over $1,000. People who live in New York City full-time really need to consider the cost of their home in choosing their neighborhood. But lucky roofswappers like you can live (temporarily) in that "Dee-Luxe apartment in the sky" without spending a penny. So keep the top 50 neighborhoods in mind, but focus on the areas real New Yorkers would live if they hit the lottery. Roofswappers in those areas are at least as likely to want to exchange homes as people in other parts of the city -- possibly more because those with more disposable income tend to live in more upscale neighborhoods.
WHEN PRICE IS NO OBJECT
As part of rating all the City's neighborhoods, the researchers asked real New Yorkers where they would live "if price were no object". While the answers were broken down into ten districts that have different names and seem quite distinct, the trend shown by these areas is very consistent. Shading a map to show all ten of these areas shows an unbroken swath of prime real estate that comprises the middle of Manhattan. New Yorkers with their pick of the city want to be in Manhattan, south of Central Park and north of Chinatown.
Looking at a map of Manhattan, draw a line from where the Brooklyn Bridge touches Manhattan straight across to the Hudson River using Chambers Street as your guideline. This cuts off the lower tip of the island. Then fold the map to remove anything above Central Park (the big green rectangle in the middle of Manhattan). New Yorkers like this middle third of Manhattan better than any other parts of the City. I would argue that the Upper West Side and Upper East Side have lots to offer roofswappers, but we are focusing on New Yorkers' top choices. Here they are:
#1 The West Village and #5 Central Greenwich Village. A charming area with low-rise brownstones. Many of the streets still have the original cobblestones that were common in all of New York City before the 20th Century. RoofSwap.com has many charming Greenwich Village apartments on offer such as this one:
http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/listing/details/219438
#2 TriBeCa, #3 SoHo and #4 NoLiTa. When you think of huge Manhattan lofts in converted 1800's factory buildings, you are thinking of TriBeCa, Soho and NoLiTa. This is the south and west part of Manhattan from just above Chinatown to Houston Street. Above Houston, streets start having numbers instead of names (First Street, Second Street, etc). The part of Manhattan where streets have names are the older areas developed before the mid-1800's.
This RoofSwap loft with 18-foot ceilings and 2300 square feet of living space is representative of the area:
http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/listing/details/203280
#6 The East Village. The "Village" in East Village refers to Greenwich Village. This is the neighborhood that continues east past New York University in the same area below 14th Street as Greenwich Village. It has more shops, nightlife and restaurants than its western neighbor. This means it isn't as quiet or quaint as the more genteel neighborhood to the west but that makes it more fun for a home exchange vacation.
Many East Village apartments are small, but this enterprising RoofSwap.com member bought two apartments next door to each other and combined them in a way that sounds perfect for a multi-generational family visiting New York City together:
http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/listing/details/216425
#7 Midtown East and #8 Murray Hill. East Midtown is convenient for people who work in the area and a good home base for travel to attractions in both the north and south of the City. However, these areas are not as exciting for visitors as the others in this list. These areas probably made the top 10 because they are convenient for people who work in the area. You won't find the same high concentration of high-end or bargain shopping, diverse restaurants for all budgets and nightlife in these areas as in the other top neighborhoods listed. If you want a central but quiet area, this might be for you, as reflected in this RoofSwap listing:
http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/listing/details/203459
#9 Chelsea. Interested in art and restaurants? Chelsea should be #1 on your list. Hundreds of art galleries line the streets of West Chelsea. All are free to enter and tour, like a cutting-edge museum. Nestled up to the galleries are the fascinating boutiques of the nearby Meat Packing district. Both Chelsea and MePa are home to the City's hottest night clubs. Chelsea was named one of America's Best Restaurant Neighborhoods by Bon Appetit magazine. Since it is in the geographic center of Manhattan it is also the most convenient spot for visiting all the other great areas of the city. Can you tell I am biased, having grown up in Chelsea? Luckily, dozens of home exchangers have agreed with me after using my apartment.
http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/listing/details/215853
#10 Midtown West. This is the area for theater-lovers, as it is the location of Broadway Theaters and Times Square. Times Square is the City's top tourist attraction, which is exactly why you may want to stay elsewhere. Manhattan is too crowded to make staying in West Midtown much fun. To the west of Midtown is Hell's Kitchen, which has become a hip neighborhood, despite its scary name.
http://www.roofswap.com/index.php/listing/details/203356
BEST ROOFSWAP NEIGHBORHOODS IN OTHER CITIES
The RoofSwap.com Forum is the perfect place to ask about what areas to target in other cities. In a future Key to Home Exchange I will let you know how to research where to stay in other areas before sending out offers to other RoofSwap members.
