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The Gayest Neighborhoods In America—And How To Afford Them

By Dan Avery June 20, 2012 at 7:48am
Since we tend to live in cities, the cost of living for gays and lesbians is usually a lot higher on average than it is for straight folks. But a new report has dug up ten affordable alternatives to tried-and-true gayborhoods—at least for gay couples. The real-estate website Trulia crunched the numbers by identifying zip codes with high-concentrations of gay and lesbian couples (they got their numbers by tweaking some Census Bureau statistics on same-sex households) and examining the average price-per-foot of real estate in that area. As it turns out, if you’re willing to chose a less-epic but still vibrant gay community, you can get a pretty good bang for your buck. In San Francisco, for example, if you want to live in the Castro, you’re gonna shell out about $670 a square foot. But a similar place in Brisbane, which also has a healthy queer population, is just $311 per square foot. In New York, the median price for a home in Chelsea has topped $1,200 per square foot or more than $1.2 million for a two-bedroom apartment. (And Chelsea’s on it’s way out as the gayborhood of choice.)  But a PATH ride away in Jersey City, you could pay just $450,000 for a comparable place. Honey, where are the real-estate ads? Did Trulia get it wrong? Have another option?. Leave a tip in the comments. Click through for Trulia’s list of the ten gayest neighborhoods in America, including the average price per square foot of real estate there, and in an affordable, gay-friendly alternative.
 

TOP TEN GAY NEIGHBORHOODS IN AMERICA

Avondale Estates, GA
Avondale Estates, GA

Atlanta

Most popular among same-sex male couples: Morningside/Lenox Park/Piedmont Heights, Atlanta ($129 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Grant Park,
Atlanta ($104 per square foot).

Most popular among same-sex female couples: Avondale Estates, GA ($96 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Also Avondale Estates, GA

Chicago

Most popular among same-sex male and female couples: Edgewater, Chicago
($131 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Rogers Park, Chicago
($95 per square foot).


Boston

Most popular neighborhood for same-sex male couples: South End, Boston ($608 per square foot). Most affordable alternative: Dorchester, Mass. ($209 per square foot).

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex female couples: Jamaica Plain, Bos

ton ($304 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Roslindale, Mass. ($227 per square foot).

 

Dallas

Most popular among same-sex male couples: Oak Lawn, Dallas ($160 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Northwest Dallas ($92 per square foot).

Most popular among same-sex female couples: Lake Highlands, Dallas ($128 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Also Lake Highlands.

West Hollywood, Los Angeles

 

Los Angeles

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex male couples: West Hollywood, Los Angeles ($481 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Signal Hill, Long Beach ($200 per square foot).

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex female couples: West Hollywood, Los Angeles ($481 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Eastside, Long Beach ($207 per square foot).

 

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex male couples: Wilton Manors, FL ($206 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Oakland Park, Fla. ($115 per square foot).

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex female couples: Wilton Manors, FL ($206 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Lake Worth, Fla. ($66 per square foot).

 

Chelsea, Manhattan

New York

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex male couples: Chelsea, New York ($1,199 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Jersey City, N.J. ($452 per square foot).

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex female couples: Park Slope, Brooklyn ($664 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Nyack, New York ($266 per square foot).

 

Philadelphia

Most popular among same-sex male couples: Washington Square West, Philadelphia ($341 per square foot ). Affordable alternative: Center City, Philadelphia ($160 per square foot).

Most popular among same-sex female couples: Mount Airy, Philadelphia ($120 per square foot). Most affordable alternative: Also Mount Airy

 

San Francisco

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex male couples: Castro, San Francisco ($671 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Brisbane, CA ($311 per square foot).

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex female couples: Castro, San Francisco ($671 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Redwood Heights, Oakland ($230 per square foot).

 

Washington, DC

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex male couples: Logan Circle, DC ($525 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Columbia Heights, DC ($333 per square foot).

Most popular neighborhood among same-sex female couples: Alexandria, VA ($405 per square foot). Affordable alternative: Hyattsville, MD ($101 per square foot).


Did Trulia get it wrong? Have another option. Leave a tip in the comments.

 

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33 Comments*

  • Joseph

    I wonder if this data falls under the same trap as Richard Florida’s statistical data on ‘creative cities’. The Census Bureau has never asked me or anyone in my household about our sexual orientations. Speaking in terms of urban center populations, a household with people of the same-sex is more likely to constitute college students or people ages 20-30 who are roommates. I’m just wondering because most of these examples are college towns.

  • Callum

    Brisbane is NOT part of the City of San Francisco, it does however overlook the San Francisco Dump. There are better choices within San Francisco. Also one should note, the the entire San Francisco Bay Area is reasonably liberal and for the most part is usually accepting to gay residents.

  • Alex

    I do not choose where I lived because the pride parade goes by my house once a year. Having a boyfriend is just one part of me. I would hope someone wouldn’t choose a area solely because of gay population. It does matter a bit like out here you can’t find anyone. But it isn’t the most important thing.

  • Daez

    I have never been a city fan. I did not grow up in a city, and I have no desire to spend my life in a one or two bedroom apartment in the midst of a polluted city. Having gay people around is simply not that important when you are in a healthy committed relationship, and you have friends that are accepting.

  • Jason M

    Well, I live in Atlanta in Piedmont Park, and hang out in some of the other mentioned neighborhoods as well. What is nice is that you can walk down the street with your boyfriend, holding hands, maybe even a little smooch, and not expect to get crap for it. Well depending on the level of PDA, someone may shout for you to get a room.

    Maybe I’m wrong, but I think that’s worth something.

  • Owen

    @Alex: and blah blah blah blah blah to you too.

  • ggreen

    The Castro is hardly a gay neighborhood anymore. It is full of snotty straight people and their nannies with double strollers clogging up the sidewalks. The City government is busily trying to turn all available rental units into condos for people that will pay a million dollars for a home with no parking and there are plenty of those fools. But assholes that spend a million dollars for a condo HATE paying taxes, any taxes at all. So the city is just cutting its nose off.

  • Well

    It is really unfortunate that gay people, especially younger and/or less well of gay people, have been forced out of the neighborhoods we built. Here in New England, both the South End of Boston and Provincetown have become unaffordable to most gays except for the wealthy over-45s. Streets and coffee shops where you could feel free to flirt with cute guys or smooch with your boyfriend have been overrun with straight yuppie couples and their screaming toddlers. Gay bookstores, funky stores, and affordable gay-friendly eateries have closed due to high rents. The West End of Provincetown has become essentially a gay retirement community – a shock to me on a recent visit when comaring it to the dynamic young gay mecca it was in the 90s.

    As many of us who are over 35 can attest, there are many advantages to living in a neighborhood with a high gay population. Having a sense of community, being able to meet people face to face, running into friends and potential boyfriends on the street and in coffee shops, and so on, provides a far higher quality of life than the a-social networks represented by Manhunt and Grindr. A lot of this has been lost in many cities, and whatever you may say about integration, nothing has replaced it for many gay people, young and older, who now have nowhere to go. I find this sad.

  • rf

    Did Trulia do a report on the best places for blacks to live too? How about Jews?

    Regarding the census figures, this past census they finally counted the number of couples of the same sex who identified each other as husbands or wives–it didn’t matter if you were actually married, just that you thought of yourself as such. Previously when people did that, the census would change the answers so that they would be discounted as a couple, although I’ve also heard they would switch one of the answers to husband and wife so it counted as an opposite sex couple. Any gay couples who knew that the census was doing this and those who just put themselves as married on the census to eff with them were counted as gay. No single gay people were counted unless they went in with a same sex roomate and declared themselves married on the form.

  • Anthony

    I live in a town on 11,000 right outside of Philadelphia. According to the census data, we’re the second higher per capita in terms of same sex couples to heterosexual couples in Pennsylvania with something like 12%. Thing is, we only know of one gay couple and one lesbian couple in our neighborhood! So suffice it to say, I am thrilled we’re looked at as a teeny, tiny gay mecca, but I sure don’t see it.

  • QJ201

    Headline didn’t answer the question.

    Multiple Choice.

    A) Become an escort
    B) Share an apartment with way too many other people
    C) Find a rich boyfriend who’ll pay the rent/mortgage
    D) I’m one of the gay 1% (or Mumsy and Daddy will pay)
    E) None of the above, I’ll live elsewhere

  • jack jett

    Just the fact that they put Dallas on this list makes me think so Log Cabin Repuke put this list together.

    Dallas is an extreme right wing city is will ALWAYS be known for it’s extreme right wing douchebaggery.

    Dallas is NOT gay friendly and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

  • Cam

    @Alex:

    What exactly was your point?

  • TommyOC

    Long Beach is a greatly affordable alternative to LA/WeHo and is but 40 minutes away, a modest drive for Angelinos. Bonus: Long Beach, with over 1m residents, has its own gay ghetto and the third-largest pride festival in the nation. Oh, and it’s a beach city. so there’s that going for it.

    Suppose one could say LA is a more expensive alternative to Long Beach.

  • Lane

    Since Wash west is part of center city Philly how can center city be an alternative. Whoever wrote this article did not do much research.

  • Bill

    Are you nuts!! Good God! Dallas is the best gay city in the county! The architecture, the museums, the bath-houses….

    The free lifestyle here is incomparable.. Michelle Obama is our biggest drag queen!

  • And Tenna

    Hello? Anyone ever heard of BOYSTOWN in CHICAGO? Gayest gayborhood in America? Infact, the entire Northside, Rogers Park down to the Loop, Pilsen to Logan Square, all gay friendly. Boystown is so big and gay they had to take over Andersonville from the lezzies(they don’t go out enough), now dubbed Mandersonville, usually cool for the more laid back mature crowd.
    I used to pay 725 for a 2 bedroom in Logan Square!, I now live in LA and I have to say WEHO doesn’t even compare to Chicago’s Boystown, and nowhere in NYC has the established community recognition that Boystown does…Been to miami (one gay bar), and San Fran also, Not worth the investment!!!

  • And Tenna

    @ggreen: So True!

  • zander

    @Alex: It is your choice not to live in a place that is full of rainbows, sunshine, and the gayest of parades, but some of us need to be around other people that are like us, not everyone wants to be in the minority but rather in the majority of their small LGBT majority populated neighborhoods and to these people location does make a difference. I love San Francisco <3

  • Colin

    @And Tenna: You’re obviously a homer. You’re trying to compare a glorified rust belt city like Chicago to NYC and L.A.?

    Maybe in Chicago all the gays have to live together in Boystown because that’s where the gay scene is concentrated. In NYC and L.A. gays are much more spread out and there are several great gay neighborhoods in those cities outside of WeHo and Chelsea.

  • Well

    @Colin, I’ve been to Chicago and I’ve been to NYC, and I can say without any hesitation that Chicago has the better gay neighborhood and scene. So far better, there is not even any contest! I am sure there are more gays spread around in New York, but that is not what makes a dynamic and diverse gay neighborhood. Chelsea is moribund, and what are these other great gay unknown neighborhoods you speak of?

  • Dixie Rect

    Jersey City? Yikes – only if you want to get car jacked, robbed and murdered. Don’t do it!

  • Hephaestion

    Chelsea may have lots of gays, but it’s an ugly-ass area and you’d never know it was a gayborhood most of the time. Someone needs to beautify Chelsea. How can a gayborhood be that drab?

  • Colin

    @Well: Chicago sounds very segregated. That the city would need such a built up gay area in one overall place says a lot. In L.A. that is not the case and in NYC that is not the case, either.

    And @And Tenna: Per capita, WeHo is actually the gayest neighborhood/city in America.

  • Trip

    @jack jett: I’m gay and I lived in Oak Lawn for years, and rest assured, it is a gay neighborhood. Many gay bars are located at the crossroads of Oak Lawn and Cedar Springs. Not sure what you’re talking about, but you’re totally incorrect.

  • Trip

    @Hephaestion: Huh? Everything about Chelsea is gay, from the muscle queens locking hands as they walk down the street, to the porn stores, to the tacky clothing stores selling banana hammocks and army fatigues, to the gay ads on the telephone booths. If you can’t tell it’s a gay neighborhood, then you don’t know what you’re looking for.

  • anon

    lol i thought they were talking about Brisbane in Australia and i was like, why would anyone want to live in this dump

  • jaded

    How could you leave out Dupont Circle in DC? Lambda Rising (the now defunct glbt bookstore) and an active gay community easily make it a gayborhood.

  • Tony

    The first amendment should protect members of the clergy right to concinse also the state is prohibited from the same from interfaring in the sacremental life of religious organisations without a compelling goverment interests

  • Well

    @Colin, the many advantages of a dynamic, diverse, and somewhat concentrated gay neighborhood has been listed in previous posts. You use segregation as a dirty word, but if by integration you mean loss of this community I honestly fail to see any advantages. And no, Grindr or Manhunt Manhattan do not count as gay neighborhoods.

  • Nat

    @Well:

    “the many advantages of a dynamic, diverse, and somewhat concentrated gay neighborhood has been listed in previous posts”

    Yes. Banana hammocks, muscle queens, and porn stores. What a neighbourhood.

  • landon

    Someone is judgmental. If you have been to the Northside of Chicago you would know that it ranges from single family homes to beautiful lakefront parks to bars and restaurants to ‘banana hammocks, muscle queens and porn stores”. Plus it is not fair to discuss Chicago as a segregated city seeing as an entire half of the city is highly concentrated with gays. You can pick to live in a neighborhood that you described or you can live in the more residential and relaxed neighborhood. However, why do you feel the need to put down muscle queens, banana hammocks and porn stores? I always find it ironic when LGBT people hate others in their own community. To each their own.

    I lived in NYC for 5 years before moving to Chicago a year ago. NYC lacks a compassionate community that continuously strives to create a better community. It is all about status. Chicago embraces people considered different unlike anything that I experienced in NYC.

  • Shannon1981

    I think it depends on how important living in a gayborhood is to you. For me, having grown up in the bible belt, lived in more liberal areas, and come back…

    Well, its damned important to find a gayborhood to live and work. I am not heterophobic, but I prefer the company of other queers, and certainly prefer living and working among people like myself.

    That being said, I’ll do my own research. I will make sure it is a) affordable for me and b) just as many or more lesbians than gay men, and c) gay enough.

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