There’s a new contender for the hottest borough in town.
A report released this week by listings portal StreetEasy predicts that this year will see Queens beat out ever-trendy Brooklyn in terms of residential interest.
“Queens will reign supreme in 2024 after a record-breaking year for the borough in 2023, as both renters and would-be buyers looked farther from Manhattan in search of more affordability,” begins StreetEasy’s “10 NYC Neighborhoods to Watch in 2024” survey, which lists the New York areas that saw the largest increase in searches on the website from buyers and renters between 2022 to 2023.
In first place is Ridgewood, a Queens neighborhood adjacent to Bushwick that offers comparatively quiet, residential vibes and a median asking rent of $3,000 — 8% less than Bushwick’s median of $3,250.
Ridgewood is one of five Queens neighborhoods to rank in StreetEasy’s top 10, with others including Jackson Heights — which is famed for its wonderfully diverse food offerings, from Indian to Tibetan — Kew Gardens and Woodside. Ridgewood saw buyer and renter searches rise by 10.7% from 2022 to 2023, showing its surging popularity among locals looking for a home. What helps in that end is the neighborhood’s collection of restaurants and bars, as well as vintage stores and art galleries.
It’s no secret that Ridgewood has been gentrifying for years as longtime locals and fresh transplants flow out of Brooklyn’s highly pricey areas onto its rowhouse-lined streets — but to be first on a list like this means even greater change is likely afoot in the near future. That said, its median asking price maintained the same $1.15 million figure from 2022 to 2023.
In second place is another well-established part of Queens: Hunters Point in Long Island City, which has long been famed for its waterfront Pepsi-Cola sign and its prime views of the Manhattan skyline. StreetEasy notes that condo development — which has been quite active for about the past 10 years — in that enclave is the “name of the game” there, and that searches for housing in Hunters Point rose 9% year-over-year. The additional perk in Hunters Point is access to transportation — and as offices continue opening back up to workers as COVID-19 fades farther into the rearview, the area offers rapid commutes to Midtown on the subway.
However, the report notes that Hunters Point doesn’t offer the most in terms of affordability. The median asking price there rose by 5.8% in 2023 to roughly $1.2 million, far above the Queens median of $641,600.
Taking the bronze is Hudson Square, a sub-district of Soho, which saw an 8% increase in searches during the study’s timeframe. Similar to Hunters Point, it isn’t cheap: The median asking price there soared nearly 21% to about $3.5 million and its median rent jumped by 7.2% to $7,500 — which made it the most expensive neighborhood on the list. That’s due to a number of new apartment buildings opening up to residents — as well as Google and Disney opening offices, making for more demand to live there.
Hudson Square is one of just two Manhattan neighborhoods to make the list — the Carnegie Hill section of the Upper East Side came in tenth — but StreetEasy foresees Manhattan regaining popularity among renters this year, as its notoriously high rental prices finally begin to drop.
Brooklyn’s Sunset Park, Greenwood and Flatbush, meanwhile, scored three spots on the list — fifth, eighth and ninth, respectively — showing that the borough, though currently more built up, expensive and trendy than it ever has been before, still has further to go.
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