WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES NOVEMBER 14, 2019 21
MASPETH & MIDDLE VILLAGE: OUR NEIGHBORHOODS
A decade after rezoning, Middle Village
remains an aff ordable neighborhood
BY MAX PARROTT
MPARROTT@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
When the city approved a 300-block rezoning
of Middle Village in 2009, it guaranteed that the
neighborhood would continue to consist predominantly
of one- to two-family houses.
And with one fell swoop, the rezoning locked
Middle Village’s status as a homeowner’s
neighborhood.
Despite being pierced in the south by the M
train, the Middle Village is one transit corridor
that, for the most part, young single professionals
have not made their way into. Local broker
Sal Crifasi, of Crifasi Real Estate, said the lack
of apartments and condos ends up chasing off
young professionals.
Middle Village had about 12 percent of Ridgewood’s
rental stock as of this August, according
to StreetEasy. According to 2017 American
Community Survey data, 61.5 percent of Middle
Village residents are homeowners.
The morning QNS spoke with him, Crifasi said
that a single client selling her house in order to
buy a co-op elsewhere had asked him, “What do
I need with three bedrooms?”
At the same time, he said he doesn’t have much
to offer people looking for co-ops of condos.
Crifasi said that the demand has outpaced the
inventory in the neighborhood. If there were
more, singles would stay there.
“Believe it or not, I’d say maybe 30 percent
are one person living in these homes. The kids
moved out, and most of the times the reason we
get the houses that are for sale is the fact that
Photo courtesy of Christopher Bride/PropertyShark
they either moved to the children or they passed
away or they moved to Florida,” Crifasi said.
A large amount of the housing that enters the
market for sale in Middle Village is from estate
sales or people taking advantage of flushing
conditions to move elsewhere.
But unlike rental prices, which have outpaced
demand, property values in Middle Village has
stayed lower than surrounding public transit
hubs like Forest Park or Rego Park.
While the rezoning may have insulated the
neighborhood from shifts in development,
Middle Village hasn’t remained unaffected by
citywide property value trends.
And like many neighborhoods across the
city, home values in the area have been dipping
recently. Crifasi said that this has turned the
neighborhood into a buyer’s market.
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