Neighborhoods
Neighborhood overviews, housing stock, rental and square foot prices, and local news.
What you need to know before buying, renting, or investing.


Manhattan is the smallest, most expensive, and most densely developed of New York City's five boroughs. The island is 22 square miles (7.1% of the city's land), and has 1.6 million residents (20% of the city's population of roughly 8 million). According to the Economist, the city as a whole has almost 400,000 residents with assets of over $1 million (excluding their primary residence), and over 70 declared billionaires.

According to Cushman and Wakefield, New York City has been the world’s largest commercial real estate market in every year since 2010. In 2014, New York City captured 7% of global commercial real estate investment with $55 billion.

HOUSING STOCK
Manhattan's housing market consists primarily (___%) of apartments and ___% townhouses. There is a handful of freestanding houses (mostly in Inwood). The apartment market is roughly 75% co-ops and 25% condos. Almost all, if not all, of new construction are structured as condos. Within Manhattan, ___% of households own and ____% rent. Of the total housing, approximately ____% is rent-controlled or rent-stabilized.

PRICING
Although it is regarded as one of the most expensive markets in the United States and in the world, there is considerable range of pricing.

As of 3Q2014, the prices in Manhattan range from $___/sq.ft. for co-ops in Washington Heights and Inwood to over $2,800/sq.ft. for co-ops in Greenwich Village. New construction condos have sold for over $6,000/sq.ft. in prestige developments such as 15 Central Park West, One57, and 432 Park Avenue. However, for comparison, New York is relatively more affordable than other international cities such as London ($_____/sq.ft.), Hong Kong ($_____/sq.ft.), Paris ($_____/sq.ft.), Monaco ($_____/sq.ft.), and Moscow ($_____/sq.ft.).

EMERGING NEIGHBORHOODS
Since the 1990s, a number of lower Manhattan neighborhoods have recovered their intrinsic value as they became safer and as nightlife and retail options became more abundant. The Lower East Side did not become hot until _________, East Village began in __________, and the New York Times characterized parts of Tribeca as emerging in 2006.

There are still pockets of the Lower East Side, particularly the southern and eastern edges, where there are relative bargains, although the lower prices reflect fewer amenities or longer walks to the subway. Chinatown and Two Bridges are also still relatively affordable. The Financial District and Battery Park City have some intrinsic shortcomings, although these are changing a bit with improving retail and dining. (For more detail, see the individual neighborhood reports).

Upper Manhattan is, in many ways, a separate market, with less street life and a quieter lifestyle. Prices per square foot drop further up the island ( Washington Heights, Hamilton Heights, Inwood), as commutes become longer. However, these neighborhoods offer spectacular views, parkland, Art Deco buildings, and even a pocket of freestanding single-family Tudor houses in Inwood.

Harlem consists of several neighborhoods, each with a distinct identity. West Harlem has split into Manhattanville and Hamilton Heights. Central Harlem is better defined, as it is surrounded by parks, and has a distinct architectural identity, with its ornate Queen Anne and Renaissance Revival townhouses built for affluent residents. [and a growing restaurant scene] is creating a new focal point for residents and visitors.

Similar to how Yorkville was separated from the Upper East Side by the Third Avenue El, East Harlem's identity was shaped in 1897, when the elevated train line along Park Avenue separated the neighborhood from the more affluent Central Harlem to the west. The area to the east of Park Avenue was developed for less affluent residents - with pre-war tenement buildings like the Lower East Side, and more modest rowhouses.

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271st is the highest numbered street in Queens and also in New York City. As we have seen, Queens’ three easternmost towns were not included in the NYC consolidation plan in 1898 and broke off to form Nassau County the next year. It’s interesting to speculate that if Hempstead, North Hempstead, and Oyster Bay had remained in Queens and been consolidated into NYC, and the numbering system implemented in the 1920s had extended further east, how high would the numbers go as far as the Suffolk County border? In the 400s at least, and possibly 500. (http://forgotten-ny.com/2011/06/borderline-crazy-queens-nassau-ii/