 
Jerusalem Real-Estate Stories, Part 1
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By Anessa V. Cohen
Published on Thursday, November 08, 2007 -
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| Anessa Cohen lives in Cedarhurst and is a licensed real-estate broker (Anessa V Cohen Realty) and a licensed N.Y.S. mortgage broker (A.C. Action Mortgage Corp.) with over 20 years of experience, offering full-service residential and commercial real-estate services in the Five Towns and throughout the tri-state area. She can be reached at 516-569-5007 or via her website, www.AVCrealty.com. Readers are encouraged to send questions or comments to anessa.cohen@AVCrealty.com. |
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When I am in Israel, a large percentage of my stay goes into assessing the real-estate market and trends going on there. I decided to use at least a few articles to share with you some of the interesting stuff going on there.
Since many of us do visit at least once a year, you may recognize some of these trends and say, “Yeah, I noticed that, too!” But for the rest, maybe you will hear something new or something nostalgic that will make Israel seem all that much closer to you here.
I will start by going back a long way—30 years, to be exact, when the neighborhood everyone wanted to stay in when going to Jerusalem was Rechavia. Rechavia, being a central, well-to-do location, was the place to be for Americans staying in Jerusalem. The Big Synagogue having not yet been built, Hechal Shlomo was the main shul people gravitated to. Of course there were other shuls, as well—the Nasi shul, Yeshurin, and Pinsker (which was in nearby Talbiah, but very popular), to name but a few.
Even when choosing a hotel, one within walking distance of Ben Yehuda Street and King George and Jaffa Street (back then they were two-way streets, not pedestrian malls), was an added incentive. Back then, only a lucky few could afford to buy that additional home in Rechavia, and most stayed in hotels nearby.
We now come to the present time, when it is not unusual to have many friends and family who already own apartments in Jerusalem to use for the different stays they make over the course of the year. What has changed, though, are the neighborhoods where Americans are buying and have already bought apartments in the Jerusalem area.
Whereas years ago Rechavia was the place to buy, the neighborhoods to buy for Americans has stretched to Talbiah, German Colony (alongside Talbiah), and Baka (alongside German Colony), and even parts of Talpiot (alongside Baka).
These neighborhoods share the distinction of being within walking distance of the Old City (some a little more, some a little less), and they are all in proximity to Emek Refaim Street in German Colony, which has become the equivalent to Central Avenue here in the Five Towns.
Although people still go to the Ben Yehuda Street mall, it has been eclipsed by Emek Refaim, perhaps because of the ease of getting there (transportation has become more problematic at Ben Yehuda, with the buses not stopping nearby and the new train still not completed.)
It is not unusual to walk down Emek Refaim Street on chol ha’moed Sukkot and feel as if you never left town, since you are bumping into all your neighbors and friends from back home. Along this strip are many restaurants, cafés, artsy boutiques, and interesting shops usually full of people, American and Israeli, which have made this street the new main street. Buses stop regularly along this strip, making it very easy to get to.
Of course there are many other beautiful neighborhoods available in Jerusalem—Armon Hanatziv (off Derech Hebron Road) or Arnona (above Talpiot), Kiryat Shmuel, and Rasco (behind Rechavia), to name a few.
These neighborhoods offer lots of good deals with great apartments, but because they are not typically neighborhoods where “Americans” are buying second homes, they can be had at a much lower price than those being purchased in the places I am calling “the belt” near the Old City and the Kotel—Rechavia, Talbiah, German Colony, and Baka.
The belt, of course, has one important quality the others do not—they are within walking distance of the Old City and the Kotel on a Shabbos or yom tov, which is a priority for Americans coming for a short visit over a yom tov and wanting to get the most they can from being able to walk to the Kotel.
New construction is now going up right outside the Old City, offering luxury apartments in the old Musrara and Mamilla neighborhoods that abut the Old City walls. I have already seen the specs for some of them, and if you can afford them they are going to be spectacular.
On the other side of Rechavia, going toward the older side of town, are also very popular neighborhoods. Shaare Chesed, which has been very popular with the chareidi community for many years, is consistently building addition upon addition to existing villas and townhouse-style old Arab homes. Some older structures not in good enough condition to be rehabilitated are being torn down and beautiful one- and two-family homes are being built in their place.
Next to Shaare Chesed are the neighborhoods of Nachlaot and Mazkeret Moshe, which are next to the Machane Yehuda shuk and date to the end of the 1800s. They were built by Montefiore, who wanted housing for the Jews coming out of the Old City, which was very crowded at that time.
There are many interesting stories to be told about this area, but I will save them for my next article on Jerusalem real-estate stories.
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