Emerging Urban Development Markets

The gentrification wave started -- or perhaps re-started -- in the 1970s, when places like Manhattan's Soho district began attracting residents to formerly decrepit industrial zones. Many years later, the trend continues, not just in New York, but across the country. "Urban gentrification makes sense because [it is] taking areas close to the city center and making them better," said Paul F. Purcell, a partner in Braddock + Purcell, a real estate consulting firm.