New York City is expensive, no doubt, with neighborhoods in Manhattan and Brooklyn typically making headlines as steepest markets in the nation.
But according to a recent analysis from Point2 Homes, sister company of reporting tool PropertyShark, Queens is keeping up with its neighboring boroughs as the twelfth most expensive market in North America.
The median sale price in Queens based on data from December 2015 was $369,000 — just surpassing Denver with $350,000. Manhattan ranked no. 2 with a median price of $1.059 million, while San Francisco stole the no. 1 spot with a massive median sales price of $1.085 million.
Because the wealthy-to-middle class cannot afford Manhattan, residents flock elsewhere. But Brooklyn — ranked the most inflated market in the U.S. based on income-to-housing ratio and placing fourth in costliest cities on the continent with a median price of $620,000 — isn’t much easier on the budget.
Queens’ real estate on the rise
As PropertyShark points out, gentrification in Queens has largely affected the neighborhoods closest to Brooklyn and Manhattan — South Astoria, Ridgewood, Hunters Point and Long Island City featured 48 percent, 61 percent, 95 percent and 132 percent increases between 2005 and 2015. Home prices in those neighborhoods have escalated accordingly, exemplified by recent jumps in both sales and rent costs.
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Long Island City, arguably the most in-demand neighborhood for transplants, is undergoing major development via infrastructure, parks and amenities for new and current residents.
According to the Douglas Elliman Northwest Queens sales report for the fourth quarter of 2015, condo prices in Long Island City grew 7.5 percent quarter-over-quarter to reach a median price of $850,000. In Astoria, where gentrification and development is less prevalent but still very much alive, prices grew 5 percent between quarters in the second half of last year to reach $524,398.
Long Island City and Astoria hold the largest share of apartments in Queens at 73 percent, with more to come given the impending expansion seen and heard throughout the borough. An expected 14,000 new units are coming on the market soon in both neighborhoods, which will provide options to tenants priced out of Manhattan and Brooklyn, according to MNS.
The Queens rental market grew 2.47 percent between February 2015 and February 2016, with the most expensive units of all sizes located in Long Island City. Last month, the average price for studios was $2,414, one-bedrooms $2,788 and two-bedrooms $3,652 per month. These prices are relieving for someone coming off years of Manhattan or Brooklyn-based rates, but forecasted demand could push the meter up higher.
Brooklyn surpasses Vancouver
In yet another surprising finding, Brooklyn beat out Vancouver — a city notorious for unaffordability and more recently, teetering on the edge of what some are calling an overheated market. PropertyShark notes a diminished Canadian dollar dropped both Vancouver and Toronto down the list to sixth and eleventh, allowing Brooklyn to prevail.
