Dallas's fashionable Uptown neighborhood features mostly mid-rise apartments and townhouses, popular with young professionals and empty-nesters. Suzanne Marta

Located immediately north of downtown Dallas and west of North Central Expressway, this fashionable neighborhood is teeming with young professionals and empty-nesters looking for an urban lifestyle.

During the late 1800s, the area was home to prominent businessmen, who uses streetcars to commute downtown, and to post-Emancipation Freedman's Town. Freedman's Memorial provides a historical reminder, though the area is now better known as the State-Thomas neighborhood.

Prompted by city tax incentives, Uptown began its current development phase in the early 1990s. Mid-rise apartments and townhouses rule, though a handful of luxury high-rise options are available. Few single-home structures remain, and many have been converted into offices, shops or cafes. Folks looking to buy will find the most options around $300,000 to $400,000 for a two-bedroom condo, although the sky's the limit when it comes to luxury homes.

For young professionals looking to rent, Uptown is often the first stop when they move to the city.

Uptown is one of Dallas's most walkable neighborhoods, with cafes, bars and boutiques only a few minutes away from most residential areas. The northern end of the neighborhood is home to West Village, a mixed-use complex that includes residential and retail space and some of the best people-watching in the city.

McKinney Avenue, which is served by the free McKinney Avenue Transit Authority's streetcars, is the lifeline of Uptown and is lined with patio bars, restaurants, residential buildings and offices.

The redevelopment of the former Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad line (known as MKT, or "Katy") into the Katy Trail pedestrian and bicycle path has created an important greenway link for Uptown to the Victory Park development and American Airlines Center on the south and to Southern Methodist University and the Park Cities on the north. The 3.5-mile trail, which hugs Turtle Creek and links Lee and Reverchon parks, is packed on weekends with joggers, rollerbladers, bikers and walkers. Plans call for the trail to be expanded to the Mockingbird DART Rail station near SMU and one day to link to the city's White Rock Creek and Trinity River trail systems. Accessing the trail can be tricky and is easiest from the plaza near Knox and Travis streets or from one of the parks, although some residential complexes include private gates.

The southern part of Uptown is directly across Woodall Rodgers Freeway from the Dallas Arts District, and plans call for the two areas to be linked by a park that will cover a portion of the freeway.

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