[austlar1]

My good friends, both middle age Gen X professionals, recently sold their two bedroom Manhattan condo and moved into a new 1 bedroom rental on the Upper West Side. They also bought a small SUV (600 bucks a month to garage in their new building) and located a weekend home in Columbia County. They found an interesting place situated on 40 wooded acres for less than the price of their old Manhattan condo. They plan to put most of their housing dollar into the weekend home, but they have not ruled out buying another apartment in Manhattan since prices there are somewhat stagnant at present. My friends are a childless gay couple with a high income, so probably their experience is not all that typical. I think it does reflect a desire that many big city dwellers have to enjoy some of the benefits of ex-urban or country living.