When David Vallas, 28 years old, decided to take a year off from his lucrative job as a systems engineer and move from Anchorage, Alaska, to Pennsylvania, where he grew up, he needed to do it cheaply. He wanted to relax, hang out with his dog, and maybe write a book.

His girlfriend would be the breadwinner, but she didn't have a job lined up in Philadelphia. He grew up in the suburbs, but she was set on the city. In December, they moved into an $875-a-month two-bedroom house in West Philadelphia, a part of town that is cheaper than many other neighborhoods. The two-story unit is within their budget and has a washer, dryer and yard.

But Mr. Vallas is not relaxed.

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Hrag Vartanian gives a tour of his neighborhood, pointing out where urban renewal and gentrification have made their mark.


Urban dwellers -- are you living in an area with lower rents to save money? Does your situation drive your family crazy with worry? How safe do you feel, and how do you reduce the risk of being a victim of crime? How do you make your neighborhood home, and not a way station? Share your thoughts.

In early January, he and his girlfriend heard gunshots outside their door. They huddled in the basement. Police arrived, and chased a suspect along the side of their house. An officer at Philadelphia's 18th precinct casually characterizes the incident as an argument between two acquaintances, not a homicide. "In the end, a bullet went through our right neighbor's window," says Mr. Vallas. "Four bullets went through our upstairs neighbor's car. Police tape was strewn across our porch." When a neighbor later suggested that the chipped bricks on the side of his house were the result of bullet ricochet -- not from the mayhem in January, but from a shooting incident three months before -- Mr. Vallas and his girlfriend decided to move.

For young adults on a tight budget in the city, moving to a less expensive -- and less fashionable -- neighborhood is a way to make ends meet. The hood has perks. In addition to more space for less money, we may find historic housing stock, a bohemian atmosphere, and vibrant multicultural communities. Many of us were brought up in the suburbs. Now we either can't afford to move back, or can't stomach the prospect of being so isolated and bored ever again. But as Mr. Vallas learned, there may be irreconcilable downsides.

Besides gunshots, Mr. Vallas says there's a litany of problems on his block. There are two condemned buildings. Their backyard is actually a mudflat where neighborhood dogs jump the fence and attack their Doberman pinscher, Phoenix. The front porch attracts uninvited neighbors who leave empty Pepsi bottles and chip bags in their wake. One neighbor relieved himself on the side of Mr. Vallas' house.

Next month, he and his girlfriend will move to a pricier part of town, near Philly's posh Rittenhouse Square, where they'll rent a smaller apartment for $900 a month. "There's less likely to be a shooting there," says Capt. Benjamin Naish, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia police department.

Others who cope with inner-city conditions may be amused by the cat-calls of local lotharios and appreciate graffiti. These hearty individuals can be rewarded for their patience.

Hrag Vartanian, 33, is one of them. He first moved to New York City's Bushwick neighborhood in Brooklyn six years ago, when the area was in bad shape. Much of Bushwick burned in riots, looting, and arson prompted by a 1977 blackout -- and the housing stock still hadn't recovered. In 2000, Mr. Vartanian's rent for an 850 square foot loft was $1,000 a month -- quite low for a comparable space in fancier city districts. The price was right. He was single, a free-lance writer and earning just over $30,000 a year working at a nonprofit in Manhattan. He says he wanted to live alone, with more space and light to do his writing than he had in a basement apartment he had shared in Manhattan.

In 2001, Bushwick's 83rd police precinct had 606 violent crime complaints, including rape, felony assault, and murder. Five miles south, in Brooklyn's tony Park Slope neighborhood, the 78th precinct had 120 violent crime complaints the same year. Mr. Vartanian says he was robbed of his cellphone once while walking down the street, attacked once by muggers and, he says, there was a crack house at the end of his street. The neighborhood had small grocery stores and only a few restaurants, where he says the staff often gave him the cold shoulder. But he puts a positive spin on it: "It encouraged us to cook," he says. He laughed at the teenage wise guys who heckled him, and befriended his fellow tenants: a carpenter, a bartender, a writer, an artist. "It put me at the epicenter of creative life in New York," he says.

Mr. Vartanian and other creative types may have helped spur Bushwick's continuing gentrification. Though he says his rent has not increased significantly in the past six years, nearby loft spaces of the same size, listed on Craigslist.com, are on the rental market now for $1,600 to $2,000 a month. A couple of hip restaurants have arrived, and quirky residents of the area's copious converted warehouses host dance performances, D.J. parties, rock concerts and open studio tours that make it into blogs, newspapers and magazines. Mr. Vartanian says that "The New York Times," long absent from neighborhood shops, is finally available. The crack house went out of business. Its building has been refurbished and adorned with a graffiti mural of penguins, sanctioned by its owner. The number of violent crime complaints in the 83rd precinct was down to 436 in 2006.

Young adults have been homesteading in neglected urban neighborhoods since after World War II, according to geographer Neil Smith, an author and professor who studies gentrification at New York's CUNY Graduate Center. Artists did it long before, in spurts, he says. Now gentrification by the poorer, younger crowd is almost systematic in cities around the world.

That doesn't mean we will reap the benefits when the neighborhoods become trendy. Unless we buy, we may eventually have to leave when the urban trenches become rose gardens -- and rents rise accordingly. "People who are moving in at the front end of the process often become victims, along with the long-time residents, of the very gentrification that they helped foment," says Mr. Smith.

Andy & Lesley Sisk with Roxie

In Atlanta, Andy Sisk, 27, says he and his wife bought a three-bedroom house in the Edgewood neighborhood two years ago for $200,000. "In the suburbs of Atlanta we could have found a cheaper house, but traffic is notoriously bad&hellip; and they're cookie cutter housing developments."

Mr. Sisk, a financial analyst at a real-estate fund, figures that the value of his 1928 bungalow has appreciated about 5% each quarter on average since he bought it, based on Atlanta real-estate-price-appreciation rates from the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight. "Early on, we suffered two home break-ins and one stolen car stereo," he says, "but we began to adapt... I enjoy being close to the cultural center of Atlanta where I can catch a play or go to the aquarium." Mr. Sisk says the eclectic mix of people in his neighborhood has exposed him to sorts of people he didn't meet growing up in the small Georgia city of Warner Robins. "It has been nice to not worry about 'keeping up with the Joneses' next door," he says.

Part of the reason Mr. Sisk chose the neighborhood in 2004 is because he foresaw a demographic transition and subsequent increase in the value of homes, he says. In chorus, Barnes & Noble, Target and Best Buy arrived with other "big box" stores a year later. However, Atlanta police department crime statistics show that rates of violent crime, robbery and burglary have gone up in Mr. Sisk's neighborhood in the past two years. While crime there is not the city's worst, it's not low either.

In Texas, Christian Stagg, 27, bought a three-bedroom house in Austin's Govalle neighborhood last August for $167,000 (about $7,000 less than the median home price in the metropolitan area). Austin's city demographer, Ryan Robinson, describes Govalle as a "historically undervalued barrio that's gentrifying. It's the last part of the urban core that's affordable," he says.

Ms. Stagg grew up in rural Idaho. She works in development at a university and produces theater with her husband. The house was in their budget. "People always ask me, 'Do you walk around at night by yourself?' but I feel pretty safe," she says. Their lawn mower was stolen, but otherwise the neighborhood has been hospitable. She can walk to the theaters she works in and to an organic farm a few blocks away where she gets the bulk of her groceries. "After growing up in a rural community where you are so dependent on cars &hellip; it's huge."

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Write to Emily Meehan at actone@wsj.com