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It seems like most center cities these days are a mix of extremely poor or rich people. Where I live in DC, there is no gradual transition between luxury and middle class and poor. As soon as you cross the gentrification line, you go from yuppie luxury condos to collapsing ghetto very quickly. See Navy Yard/Anacostia or Logan Circle/Shaw or Capitol Hill/Trinidad.
And to get to middle class suburbs in Nova, you’re living 25 miles out in Woodbridge or Manassas.
Are there any sizable cities where this doesn’t apply? Where a middle class person can own a home near downtown without having to live in either bombed out inner city ghetto or $4k luxury rent studios?
Which would be best for someone who wants to live near the city center without having this only this extremely poor/luxury duality?
You can rent small apartments on the fringes of Downtown Seattle at reasonable prices. (A little more reasonable with tech companies laying off at the moment)
A quick search shows maybe 50-60 buildings walkable to the Downtown core where units are available below $1,500, in all directions, including good neighborhoods. Up that to $2,000 and it might be a couple hundred buildings.
Condos are more rare. We have tough defect-liability laws and only higher-end units get built.
It seems like most center cities these days are a mix of extremely poor or rich people. Where I live in DC, there is no gradual transition between luxury and middle class and poor. As soon as you cross the gentrification line, you go from yuppie luxury condos to collapsing ghetto very quickly. See Navy Yard/Anacostia or Logan Circle/Shaw or Capitol Hill/Trinidad.
And to get to middle class suburbs in Nova, you’re living 25 miles out in Woodbridge or Manassas.
Are there any sizable cities where this doesn’t apply? Where a middle class person can own a home near downtown without having to live in either bombed out inner city ghetto or $4k luxury rent studios?
Which would be best for someone who wants to live near the city center without having this only this extremely poor/luxury duality?
What do you consider middle-class? What income level?
I think people underestimate what “middle class” actually is. Like the median household income of Metro Boston, Metro Seattle or Metro DC is over $100,000.
“Middle class” people absolutely live near Downtown. Now do middle class families live downtown? Not really. But plenty of childless 20-30 something’s/perhaps people with 0-3 year olds
Especially in DC where housing isn’t quite as crazy
What do you consider middle-class? What income level?
For the DC area, I'd consider a middle-class city to be like Dale City, Frederick, Germantown, Manassas. Looking at median household income, that's between $80-105k.
Considering the metro area's MHI is $110k, maybe anyone making from 40-50% of the MII?
Washington DC would ostensibly fit this bucket (MHI is $90,088) until you realize a majority either makes <$50k or >$200k.
For the DC area, I'd consider a middle-class city to be like Dale City, Frederick, Germantown, Manassas. Looking at median household income, that's between $80-105k.
Considering the metro area's MHI is $110k, maybe anyone making from 40-50% of the MII?
Washington DC would ostensibly fit this bucket (MHI is $90,088) until you realize a majority either makes <$50k or >$200k.
No, you can find neighborhoods making between $80k-$120k. Have you looked at census data or are you going by what you see walking or driving down the street?
It seems like most center cities these days are a mix of extremely poor or rich people. Where I live in DC, there is no gradual transition between luxury and middle class and poor. As soon as you cross the gentrification line, you go from yuppie luxury condos to collapsing ghetto very quickly. See Navy Yard/Anacostia or Logan Circle/Shaw or Capitol Hill/Trinidad.
And to get to middle class suburbs in Nova, you’re living 25 miles out in Woodbridge or Manassas.
Are there any sizable cities where this doesn’t apply? Where a middle class person can own a home near downtown without having to live in either bombed out inner city ghetto or $4k luxury rent studios?
Which would be best for someone who wants to live near the city center without having this only this extremely poor/luxury duality?
Austin very well falls into this category. A significant portion of South, Central and East Austin is middle class.
I could be wrong but my impression is that Northeast Washington is mainly middle class as is P G County and the Silver Spring side of Montgomery County. Northwest DC and corresponding parts of Montgomery are affluent. Lots of middle class in Phila— not Chestnut Hill or Center City and North Phila is poor but much of West Philly, northwest, northeast is middle class. Queens Borough is practically all middle class, so is Staten Island and much of Brooklyn.
No, you can find neighborhoods making between $80k-$120k. Have you looked at census data or are you going by what you see walking or driving down the street?
The latter. The Census data obscures what's actually a middle class neighborhood (a lot of people making midde-class salaries) versus a bunch of rich/poor people side-by-side with a small middle class in the middle.
For example, if you remove east of Anacostia from DC ($45K MHI), the rest averages $110k MHI. Take out everything east of Union Station (exc. Capitol Hill) and now you have a poor DC with a median of $55k and a rich DC with a median of $120k.
What I can't find is a large neighborhood where lots of people are making middle-class salaries. There's a distinction between middle class people (which do exist in DC - I used to live in Mount Pleasant making $70k salary at the time) and middle class neighborhoods (which I have struggled to find).
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