10 great neighborhoods for childless adults

Silver Lake, Los Angeles

• Median home value: $474,500
• Population in 2010: 41,525
• Growth from 2000 to 2010: -7.74%
• Household income: $42,457
• Households with children: 19.5%
• Walk Score: 78

When the Los Angeles Times asked readers to describe the best and worst aspects of the Silver Lake neighborhood, one wag wrote: "The good part: the hipsters. The bad part: the hipsters."

Silver Lake spills across two ZIP codes (90039 and 90026) and two reservoirs. Big Silver Lake reservoir and its adjacent sibling, the smaller Ivanhoe Reservoir, form the heart of this eclectic community and are laced with jogging paths, basketball courts and a meadow and dog park.

Silver Lake is just northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Hollywood is to the west and Chinatown to the south. Childless adults love this eclectic paradise where bohemian and bourgeois co-exist. They congregate particularly around the main artery, Sunset Boulevard. Families gravitate to homes in the hilly areas surrounding the "lake."

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Silver Lake

Even by L.A. standards, "Silver Lake is very, very liberal, politically," says real-estate agent Michael Locke, a resident for 12 years. "There are lots and lots of single adults, gay people, artists and pot smokers." Locke's love for his neighborhood is evident in his publication, The Silver Lake News. 

Silver Lake's early good times — it was home to some of the first film studios and movie locations — were eclipsed in the 1990s by crime and gangs. But gentrification followed, making it an über-trendy destination today for the hip and childless. "It was gays and lesbians, Latinos, Scientologists, Ukrainians on our block," reminisced one L.A. Times reader about a childhood there.

Many residents work in "the industry," as Angelenos call the movie business. Architecture buffs treasure the collection of homes by Richard Neutra and other modern masters. On Sunday afternoons, the streets are filled with walkers and shoppers who love poking around among the one-off restaurants, bars, yogurt shops, coffee shops, galleries and clubs.

"It's mostly mom-and-pop shops and groovy places where they make custom pottery and jewelry. There's very little of the corporate identity. You won't see a Starbucks here," Locke says. 

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Church Hill, Richmond, Va.

• Median home value: $132,400
• Population 2010: 2,681
• Growth 2000 to 2010: 12.69%
• Household income: $38,218
• Households with children: 10.8%
• Walk Score: 70

Karen A. Chase moved with her husband, Ted Petrocci, to the historic Church Hill District, southeast of downtown Richmond, in 2010. They have no children at home, and their independent professions — she owns an advertising and design business and writes historical novels; he is a psychotherapist — let them live wherever they wish. They weren't looking to get away from children; they were simply drawn to Church Hill because it fulfilled all their needs: proximity to Chesapeake Bay for Ted, a novice sail racer; to downtown Richmond, the James River and nearby parks; to train lines connecting East Coast cities; and to the nearly completed 50-mile Cap2Cap trail connecting Richmond and Jamestown, Va.

"We were surprised to find so many child-free people, or couples whose children had left home, living up here," Chase says. "It made making friends with similar interests a little less complicated. Not everyone understands the choice."

Only one household on their block has children. That's partly because many homes are attached and have tiny yards that young families might reject as too small for children, Chase says. They're perfect for people who don't have children or who don't want a big yard to care for, she says.

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Church Hill

Chase and Petrocci love living amid some of the country's most dramatic history in Church Hill.

"Three blocks from us is where Patrick Henry gave his 'liberty or death' speech," she says.

They are charmed by the 17^th,- 18^th- and 19^th-century homes, neighborhood coffee shops, restaurants and pubs, the active community association, and their friendly neighbors and their dogs.

There are community picnics, a community garden and an annual garden and symphony tour. Once a high-crime neighborhood, Church Hill has become significantly safer as the historic-area revival strengthens the community and attracts affluence, Chase says.

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Harbour Island, Tampa, Fla.

• Median home value: $335,900
• Population 2010: 3,907
• Growth 2000 to 2010: 121.86%
• Household income: $110,391
• Households with children: 13.9%
• Walk Score: 64

Life coach and writer Laura Scott says she feels an affinity she hasn't found elsewhere with the community of childless people she's met in Tampa's Harbour Island. Everyone needs "a tribe," she says.

After a divorce a year ago, Scott, who is childfree, as she likes to put it, searched for a vibrant neighborhood that's not centered on families. She bought a condo in a 140-unit Harbour Island high-rise. The building itself is a community, with yoga classes, wine tastings, progressive dinners, parties, cook-offs and group outings to restaurants, bars and concerts. There's a mix of single, retired and childfree residents, as well as families with children.

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Harbour Island

Tampa real-estate agent Matthew Silverman, who specializes in luxury homes, has developed a subspecialty in helping childless homebuyers find neighborhoods where they'll feel comfortable. His childless clientele grew from 5% to 20% of his business in the past five years.

He and his partner, Mark Silverman, moved to Tampa's Harbour Island seven years ago. After years of living in a family-centered neighborhood, they wanted a change.

"Everyone looked at you with these sad eyes, like, 'You poor thing, look what you're missing,'" Silverman says. Harbour Island has families, but life is more balanced, with much more for adults, he says. He particularly loves the sophisticated cafes, restaurants, parks and music venues. His home is within walking distance — over a bridge — to downtown Tampa, which has sporting events, theaters, symphony, shopping and more restaurants and clubs.

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Capitol Hill, Seattle

• Median home value: $490,100
• Population 2010: 33,327
• Growth 2000 to 2010: 6.29%
• Household income: $44,651
• Households with children: 7.9%
• Walk Score: 91

Seattle's Capitol Hill has a special vibe. Pictured here is a festival in 125-year-old Volunteer Park, designed by the renowned Olmsted Brothers, whose father designed New York's Central Park.

Hovering above downtown Seattle, Capitol Hill was a dignified residential area that became a mecca for singles in the middle of the last century. In the 1980s and '90s, it began drawing a large gay population. Hard times, drugs and crime hit the Hill for a time. Various artists and hipsters helped shape the area's return to cool with the region's recent tech and real-estate boom.

Development and gentrification have helped pushed crime out, says Justin Carder, publisher of Capitol Hill Seattle Blog. Capitol Hill residents love their location, which is within walking distance of downtown. Cafes, bars and clubs are numerous. Clubs rock late into the night, and streets are filled with partiers on weekends. 

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Capitol Hill

"DJ Front Yard," as Capitol Hill Seattle Blog calls him, grooves to his own beat during one of Capitol Hill's many public celebrations. (Here's a slide show of residents celebrating in their own eclectic ways.) Carder is a father and resists a "binary" (family versus childless) description of his neighborhood.

"It's a childless city, you could say," he says of Seattle, "and Capitol Hill could be the capital of its childlessness." But there's much more to it than that on Capitol Hill. Plenty of families, like his, live there, too.

In general, the Hill attracts a young demographic. Hanging out is a favorite pastime. Tolerance, eccentricity and variety are local signatures. Residents burnish family-like relationships in the many cafes and watering holes.

"It's not unusual for someone to go out to a bar to do some work or homework or go and read a book," Carder says.

Nightlife is an economic force on Capitol Hill, drawing people from the neighborhood and from outside. The great diversity of bars and clubs is another signature of the Hill, Carder says. He ticks off a list: gay clubs, straight bars, clubs for Goths and other subgroups, haute bars featuring hand-crafted cocktails and a lot of old-style neighborhood taverns and dives.

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Downtown Knoxville, Tenn.

• Median home value: $231,900
• Population 2010: 1,522
• Growth 2000 to 2010: 37.24%
• Household income: $23,904
• Households with children: 3.3%
• Walk Score: 85

Knoxville, Tenn., has one of the highest rates of households without children. Becky Wade, director of Knoxville's Community Development Department, says that one neighborhood that's a particular magnet for people without children is the lively, recently renovated downtown.

"Knoxville is fortunate that they didn't tear down a lot of the old buildings downtown," Wade says. That's because the city's growth in the late 20th century was sprawled along the city's edges. In the past decade, though, developers have turned their attention to renovating the handsome, old downtown buildings.

Knoxville's downtown renaissance made living there chic. The downtown population has doubled in the past 10 years, says Michele Hummel, director of the Central Business Improvement District. It's divided into roughly one-third empty-nesters, one-third professionals — single or married, with or without children — and one-third students, with the University of Tennessee bordering the downtown.

Ten years ago, when Hummel and her young daughter moved into a downtown loft, they were one of few families amid a sea of childless adults. Today, she says, more families with children are moving in.

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Downtown Knoxville

Knoxville's historic Tennessee Theatre has been restored to its original state. New stores, restaurants and cinemas have sprung up. The 99-year-old, 14-story Holston National Bank building has been redeveloped into condominiums with views of the Smoky Mountains. Festivals and concerts light up life downtown, and the historic, two-block Old City is filled with clubs and music.

The entire Knoxville metro area attracts empty-nesters and retirees from other cities and states, Wade says. They're drawn by the Appalachian culture, the high-tech vibe emanating from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the affordable housing prices and the lack of a state income tax.

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U Street Corridor, Washington, D.C.

• Median home value: $495,900
• Population 2010: 9,155
• Growth 2000 to 2010: 29.49%
• Household income: $72,352
• Households with children: 6.9%
• Walk Score: 94

Duke Ellington was born in Washington, D.C.'s U Street Corridor. The great black musicians and entertainers of the 20^th century packed theaters and clubs in this northwest Washington community. The historic neighborhood stretches along U Street from 14^th Street Northwest to Florida Avenue Northwest and 9^th Street Northwest. It was Washington's Harlem in the early half of the 20^th century. African-American businesses, residences, churches, schools, music and theater flourished. The neighborhood fell on hard times and blight in the 1960s.

The new century has brought a new start. The corridor's restored Victorian homes and row houses are home to plenty of families. But the mix of retail shops, street murals, galleries, restaurants, clubs, cafes and meeting places where young people gather all make the neighborhood a sought-after home for cosmopolitan singles and couples without children.

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U Street Corridor

Developers have discovered the U Street Corridor in recent years, erecting big mixed-use developments with condos and ground-floor shops. The city has restored one of the neighborhood's centerpieces, the historic Lincoln Theatre. Municipal government has installed new brick sidewalks and street bike lanes. Getting around is easy using the Metro — use the Cardozo Green Line stop — buses, Zipcar and community bikes.

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Williamsburg, Brooklyn, N.Y.

• Median home value: $534,200
• Population 2010: 115,760
• Growth 2000 to 2010: 10.50%
• Household income: $33,635
• Households with children: 29.6%
• Walk Score: 93

Williamsburg, in New York's borough of Brooklyn, is cooler than cool.

"Few other enclaves inspire the kind of love-it-or-loathe-it partisanship" that Williamsburg evokes, New York Magazine says. The Williamsburg Bridge over the East River links the neighborhood to the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

It was once a working waterfront and industrial center, and then a community of mostly working-class Latinos and Hasidic Jews, with relatively low incomes and higher than average birthrates. But the young-adult scene has moved into this melting pot, putting Williamsburg on the map of the trendiest neighborhoods.

It all began in the 1990s with a few artists and bohemian pioneers who brought a brief era of arty quaintness. The real-estate boom in the 2000s brought affluent newcomers in search of bargain housing, a quick commute and the hip life.

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Williamsburg

By the time real estate went bust, condos, lofts and luxury high-rise rentals had begun to define the Williamsburg scene. In 2009, Time magazine crowed that Williamsburg's "hipster playland is in crisis." The recession had pinched off the disposable income and parental subsidies that had fueled the rise of youth culture there. But Williamsburg, less edgy and more trendy now, remains a center of the childless and cool.

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The Alberta Arts District, Portland, Ore.

• Median home value: $185,300
• Population 2010: 9,042
• Growth 2000 to 2010: 0.6%
• Household income: $39,993
• Households with children: 21.2%
• Walk Score: 78

You may have heard of Portland's Pearl District, once a grubby, bohemian art district and now the city's expensive, cultured and upscale place to be. The Pearl has a reputation as a playground for adults with few amenities for children. We're more interested, though, in another Portland neighborhood, the up-and-coming Alberta Arts District. It runs along Alberta Street, straddling three (Vernon, Concordia and King) of Portland's 95 neighborhoods.

This historically black community "has got a grungy, indie kind of vibe. It's definitely on its way up," says Sperling, who lives in Portland. While it's still low-rent, funky, arty, lively and low-key, rents and property values are starting to rise with the influx of newcomers. The Pearl is mostly condos and lofts, while Alberta is home to older single-family homes populated largely by 20- and 30-somethings. The price for this early-stage gentrification is that many earlier residents are being pushed out, Sperling says.

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The Alberta Arts District

As Alberta grows in hipness, property values have risen. New owners are rehabbing older homes. Restaurants, cafes and shops are springing up.

Working artists set the tone. Their work hangs on the walls of the cafes and shops lining Alberta Street. On the last Thursday of each month, doors are opened in the evening and street performers, musicians and food vendors line Alberta Street, creating a festival atmosphere. PortlandNeighborhood.com's interactive map links to many Alberta Street attractions.

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North End, Boise, Idaho

• Median home value: $259,600
• Population 2010: 9,021
• Growth 2000 to 2010: -2.14%
• Household income: $37,299
• Households with children: 21.3%
• Walk Score: 62

The childless singles and couples who flock to Boise's North End neighborhood aren't looking for neon nightlife. They're pulled in by Boise's outdoors lifestyle and the North End's proximity to the Boise Front Range.

The neighborhood is tucked between foothills and the Boise River. The 130-mile Ridge to Rivers trail system starts right there. Bogus Basin ski resort is 28 minutes away by car, says Dave Green, a North Ender for most of his life. Green says he loves the neighborhood parks — there are 12 — and the nearby greenbelt. Downtown Boise is minutes away. The city's River Recreation Park urban paddling center is nearby. Or you'll find whitewater kayaking and rafting on the Payette River, 45 minutes away.

The center of the neighborhood is Hyde Park, a turn-of-the-century shopping district covering two square blocks. The annual Hyde Park Street Fair in September is a neighborhood extravaganza. The North End may be small, but it contains 140 small and home-based businesses, says Green, a community activist and owner of a graphics and marketing business. He also maintains the NorthEnd.org website. The North End Neighborhood Association newsletter also helps locals keep up to date.

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North End

The North End has a significant population of childless adults, Green says, partly because of the large number of student rentals. Boise State University is about a mile south, across downtown and over the river. More recently, high-density developments have sprung up, targeting singles, couples and retired couples.

Growing families typically prefer larger homes than they'll find in the North End. "This is a very old neighborhood," Green says. "It was established 130 years ago. Most of the homes are pretty small, comparatively, so people who have kids and are starting families typically aren't going to be as attracted."

While many young families do choose the neighborhood, they pay about the same price for a 1,200-square-foot house in the North End as they would in the suburbs for a 2,600-square-foot house with a fenced yard and two-car garage.

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78702, Austin, Texas

• Median home price: $196,600
• Population 2010: 21,215
• Growth 2000 to 2010: -6.64%
• Household income: $28,865
• Households with children: 22.8%
• Walk Score: 89

Not long ago, East Austin was a neighborhood of poor and working-class black and Latino families. But between 2000 and 2010, dramatic change took place: Increasing numbers of single and childless whites and Asians moved in; families with children moved out. As property prices shot up, trendy eateries, cafes, bars and shops proliferated.

The heart of the newly gentrified area is the 78702 ZIP code. It's "all about being adult-friendly," says Ryan Robinson, demographer for Austin.

CORRECTION: 10 great neighborhoods for childless adults
June 1, 2012: The East Austin area of Austin, Texas, primarily is in the 78702 ZIP code. An incorrect ZIP code was named in a previous verison of this slide show.

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78702

Austin is all about music, and 78702 is filled with festivals, clubs and bars. Yelp lists nine music venues in the larger East Austin area.

Another big attraction for newcomers is the neighborhood's proximity to jobs and attractions in downtown Austin. Childless residents often are pulled to neighborhoods near a city center with amenities such as parks, sports facilities, farmers markets and jogging trails and easy walking to shops and restaurants. These are attractions that families like, too, of course. But when gentrification jacks up home prices, buyers without children often can pay more, which gives them an edge.

Also, families searching for high-performing schools have limited choices when it comes to neighborhood. Childless homebuyers have a wider range of options, Robinson says.

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