2021 New York's 50 most expensive neighborhoods are released, and the top 11 are analyzed one by one! Brooklyn house prices rose nearly 20% a year

In the early days of the pandemic, New York's housing market was surprisingly quiet. After nearly a year of intermittent closures and lockdowns, as well as widely available vaccinations, buyers' appetite has grown. Specifically, the city completed 10,268 residential sales in the third quarter of 2021, an increase of 145% year-on-year compared to the third quarter of 2020, which was affected by the epidemic. Meanwhile, house prices continued their upward trend in the third quarter, with the median price of home sales across the city being $755,000 – up 16% year-on-year from the third quarter of 2020 and 16% higher than in the third quarter of 2019.

According to property website Propertyshark, in the city's 50 most expensive neighborhoods (actually 57, of which one covers multiple districts), house prices and transaction volumes have risen in most of them, though not all: 26 neighborhoods have seen a sharp rise in housing prices — 23 of them have seen their prices rise at a double-digit rate, with 2 blocks with median selling prices rising by more than 50 percent and one by more than 200 percent.

On the other hand, there were 18 blocks where the median selling price fell year-on-year. Of these, 11 are in Manhattan and seven in Brooklyn.

Of the 50 neighborhoods that propertyshark ranks New York City's most expensive neighborhoods, 42 blocks saw double-digit year-over-year sales. Of the rest, sales declined in only one block, Belle harbor in Queens, while one block, Hudson Yards in Manhattan, was flat year-over-year.

Of the neighborhoods that recorded growth, sales more than doubled year-over-year in 35 neighborhoods, and residential sales in 22 neighborhoods more than tripled in the third quarter of 2020. Surprisingly, sales in three blocks have even quadrupled compared to last year, with one of them up nearly 900 percent — Hudson Town Square in Manhattan.

It should be noted that sales activity in the third quarter of 2020 fell to a record low. As a result, the year-on-year increase in sales activity is mainly due to the social recovery to pre-pandemic levels. However, pent-up demand in the sluggish market in 2020 has clearly piqued the appetite of buyers who are more motivated to buy due to the improving economic outlook and the weakening of the pandemic.

Seven of the top 10 most expensive New York neighborhoods are in Manhattan, and Fort Park City in Brooklyn jumped 134 percent to 8th

Of the 57 blocks with the highest median selling price released in the third quarter, Manhattan and Brooklyn dominated, with 24 and 22 blocks, respectively. Queens has 11 blocks on the list. While manhattan's dominance among the city's 10 most expensive neighborhoods is a common occurrence, its dominance declined slightly this quarter, from nine in the top 10 in the previous quarter to seven this year.

Sales at Hudson Yards have been soaring for much of the year, despite some declines in the third quarter. Overall, the median selling price for Hudson Town Square at the end of the quarter was $4,354,000 – slightly lower than the median price in the third quarter of 2020. And, despite a 2 percent year-over-year decline in home prices, this high-flying neighborhood remains the number one neighborhood in New York City, a big gap from several others. However, transaction volume has not yet returned to the buying frenzy that preceded the mansion tax, with only 9 transactions in the quarter.

Another major block in the most expensive neighborhood is right next to Hudson Town Square: tribeca, the second most expensive neighborhood in New York City in the third quarter of 2021, with a median selling price of $3,350,000 — a 3 percent year-over-year increase. Here, sales increased by 154% year-on-year, with sales close to 100. By comparison, Tribeca completed only 39 sales in the third quarter of 2020. Nonetheless, the increase in activity in the quarter indicates that the community has returned to pre-pandemic activity levels.

Meanwhile, as sales of homes across the city increased, Soho followed suit, entering New York City's third-most expensive neighborhood. The median selling price in Soho was down 16 percent from last year to $2,850,000. The decline in house prices is partly due to a near-quadrupling in trading volumes, demonstrating the resilience and recovery of the community. Last year, only a handful of deals were made and concentrated on luxury apartments, pushing up the median selling price. Transaction volumes increased during the quarter, with co-op sales accounting for a higher share than last year and a median decline in prices.

In fourth place is Little Italy, with a median selling price of $2,500,000. However, due to a significant slowdown in sales activity in the same quarter of last year, there is not enough data to compare year-on-year. Even so, the 11 deals in the quarter are encouraging for Little Italy, which didn't have any deals in the same period last year.

Hudson Square followed Little Italy, jumping to No. 5 at the median price of $2,026,000 — surprising considering that prices in the neighborhood fell 28 percent year-over-year. Of course, part of the reason for the drop in prices is that there were only 9 deals last year, most of which were luxury apartments in two recently completed buildings. Sales activity at Hudson Place recovered significantly, recording 89 sales in the third quarter of 2021 – an 889% increase in transaction volume compared to the third quarter of 2020. More than half of sales were made at 77charlton, with the median selling price of 89 transactions at $1,551,000, below the median for the block.

This was followed by No. 6 dumbo, with a median selling price of $1,818,000, slightly lower than the same period last year. There were 39 transactions, up 414% from just 7 in the third quarter of 2020. Seven of the deals took place in the new luxury loft apartment complex at 168 Plymouth, each priced at more than $2 million.

Flatiron ranked No. 7, 12 percent higher than the same period last year, with a median selling price of $1,765,000. Its sales activity was also impressive: sales in the neighborhood increased by 393% year-on-year during the quarter, from 30 in the third quarter of 2020 to 148 in the third quarter of 2021.

Brooklyn's battery park city saw home prices rise 134 percent year-over-year to $1.75 million, firmly ranking it as the 8th most expensive neighborhood in New York City.

In the top 10, Brooklyn's Fiske Terrace neighborhood ranked 9th with a median of $1.65 million, and Brooklyn's Carroll Gardens ranked bottom with a median selling price of $1,596,000.

Sales in Manhattan increased 221% year-over-year and Brooklyn home prices increased by more than 16% year-on-year

As expected, manhattan remains the most expensive borough, despite a 2% year-on-year increase in home prices. The borough's median selling price remains at $1.1 million – the second consecutive quarter above the $1 million threshold.

Trading activity also returned to Manhattan, jumping 221 percent after a sharp drop in sales in the same period last year. This year, the borough recorded 4,281 sales citywide, and Manhattan's third-quarter sales activity was a staggering 60 percent higher than in the third quarter of 2019 (before the pandemic).

Brooklyn hasn't experienced a sharp decline in sales activity like Manhattan, and the borough is still growing. Brooklyn's sales in the third quarter of 2021 were 2,544, up 153% year-over-year and 42% higher than the same period in 2019. House prices in the borough also increased 16 percent from the third quarter of 2020 to $810,000. Interestingly, the median price of co-ops in Brooklyn rose by 37 percent — even more than usual as the borough became more popular — pushing up the median selling price across the district as a whole.

In particular, fiske terrace , a historic little neighborhood near Brooklyn Prospect Park — recorded four single-family home sales and one co-op sale for a median of $1.65 million. The neighborhood is also the second most expensive neighborhood in Brooklyn and the 9th largest in New York City overall.

Carroll Gardens is ranked third most expensive in the region.

Not to be outdone, vinegar hill is the fourth most expensive neighborhood in Brooklyn and ranks 11th overall in the city. This small community east of Denpo has been undergoing major developments, and the price reflects this. There were 6 deals in the third quarter with a median selling price of $1,543,000.

In the north, home price gains in Queens actually outpaced Brooklyn, and the borough saw the median sale price rise 17 percent to $580,000 — 15 percent higher than the median of $504,000 recorded in the third quarter of 2019. Sales activity here also continued to recover: the borough closed 2,928 transactions in the third quarter of 2021, with sales up 89% year-on-year. Queens also has more transactions than before the pandemic, but at a slower pace than Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Finally, Belle Harbour, Queens' most expensive neighborhood, ranked 23rd in the city, up 22 percent year-over-year and above the $1 million mark, with a median selling price of $1.15 million, despite a 50 percent year-over-year decline in transaction volume. Hunters point also surpassed the indicator with a median of $1,064,000, ranking second in the region and 29th in the city. Fresh meadows and malba rank third and fourth most expensive in the borough, with median selling prices of $978,000 and $975,000, respectively.

Compile: v