Washington Hts. climbs to new level.

Washington Heights, New York's landlord Rubin Pikus spent 32 years developing and managing his family's portfolio of 30 apartment buildings, and he planned to pass all of them down to his grandchildren. The often-overlooked neighborhood of Washington Heights has been the scene of the city's hottest real estate deals this summer. In the past two years, national real estate investor Praedium Group LLC bought 600 housing units in Washington Heights-part of its 15,000-unit portfolio. With minor renovations to their stock, buyers can charge much higher rents for Washington Heights apartments, while still offering prices that look like bargains to apartment-hunters used to prices in the East Village or the fashionable neighborhoods of Brooklyn.