SoHo, NYC Apartments

SoHo is a hip, downtown neighborhood in Manhattan. The neighborhood is full of historic NYC factories that are now converted loft spaces. The streets are relatively empty in the evening but full of shopping activity during the day. Don't worry, you can still rent an apartment in SoHo and enjoy the nearby nightlife found in Nolita, Greenwich Village, the East Village, Lower East Side or West Village. Unfortunately, much of New York City has realized that this is a great place to rent an apartment and rents are pretty high. You should expect to pay in the range of $2500 for a studio, $3000 for a 1br, and $5000 for a 2br. Given the high rental prices, you can try to save you money by looking at no fee Soho rentals.

The name SoHo comes from the term South of Houston, meaning south of Houston Street. Houston is effectively 1st Street and, while it runs the width of Manhattan, SoHo is only the south part of Houston between Lafayette and West Broadway and Canal Street.

SoHo is often referred to as the Cast Iron District because the cast iron factories that make up much of the neighborhood. The old buildings typically range from 4 to 5 stories, although more recently constructed buildings are taller and lack some of the character. Its tough to find a Soho rental apartment in one of the old loft factories and still get a doorman, gym, elevator, etc. If those features are important to you, its probably easiest to go with one of the new buildings.

If being close the subway is important, you will have to choose between accessibility to transportation and living on the most charming Soho Streets. Wooster and Greene are two of the best streets to live on but furthest from the Houston F,V,B,D, Spring 6 or Prince R,W subway lines.

The best streets to live on are Mercer, Greene, Wooster, and Crosby as they are full of charm, lined with cobblestone and relatively quiet. You should avoid living on Broadway unless you want to deal with massive crowds on warms summer days. Similarly, the East-West streets of Prince and Spring are great in the evening but very crowded during the day. Finally, you should try to steer clear of Canal - its busy, dirty and loud. Broome and Grand streets are much better than Canal and quieter than Prince or Spring. That said, traffic on Broome flows into the Holland Tunnel and leads to a crowded street during rush hour.

Unfortunately, SoHo lacks parks and green spaces. If you have a dog and need a park for him to play in, you will likely have to walk up to Washington Square Park or West to the Hudson River Park. Dog parks are few and far between South of Houston.

What Soho lacks in green spaces, it makes up for in many other ways. It has great restaurants like Mercer Kitchen, Lure Fish Bar, Balthazar, and Fanelli's Cafe. It has plenty of galleries, hip clothing stores and street vendors/performers with flair.

If finding a no fee Soho apartment is top of your list, there are a few good ways to do so. If you don't find what you are looking for on Naked Apartments, I would suggest walking the neighborhood and keeping your eyes open for rental signs. Many of the lofts are still owned by artists that have lived in the neighborhood forever and aren't all that internet savvy when it comes to online advertising.

Other Manhattan Neighborhoods

• Battery Park
• Chelsea
• Chinatown
• East Village
• Financial District
• Flatiron
• Gramercy
• Greenwich Village
• Harlem
• Hell's Kitchen
• Inwood
• Kips Bay
• Lower East Side
• Meatpacking Dist.
• Midtown East
• Morningside Heights
• Murray Hill
• NoHo
• Nolita
• Roosevelt Island
• SoHo
• TriBeCa
• Tudor City
• Union Square
• Upper East Side
• Upper West Side
• Washington Heights
• West Village