Since so many Downtown residents walk to work—the ability to do so has been cited as one of the key reasons for living in the neighborhood—it’s unsurprising that the largest employment sector is FIRE, which is heavily concentrated in Lower Manhattan. The sector employs 29% of the survey respondents. Creative services firms employ 14% of residents, while business services companies employ another 14%. About 23% of residents are self-employed.

Lower Manhattan’s residential population has more than doubled from 9/11, when 25,000 people lived Downtown. Today’s it’s an estimated 55,000, a 14% increase in the past three years.

Helping grow that residential base has been the addition of more than 6,000 condominium and rental apartment units coming on line since 2007. Apartment ownership has increased 700 basis points to 47% during that time.

Quality of life was selected by 87% of survey respondents as a key reason for choosing to live in Lower Manhattan. Another 84% cited the quality of their apartment, while 82% cited access to mass transit and 81 percent cited area safety.

Now that they’re here, most Lower Manhattan residents plan on staying put. Eighty-eight percent of the survey’s respondents intend to live Downtown for at least the next three years.

Bearing out the alliance’s survey, a Platinum Properties study shows more evidence of growing residential demand The Wall Street-based residential brokerage firm says average rental prices in the Financial District have increased by as much as 5% over the past six months. The vacancy rate has dropped to 2.17% from 4.98% at the end of 2009, leading landlords to cut back on concessions.