20 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 17, 2018 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Queens homes increased in value since the Great Recession: report
BY RYAN KELLEY
rkelley@ridgewoodtimes.com
Twitter R_Kelley6
Buying a home during the market
crash in 2008 might have seemed like a
scary proposition back then, but those
who did are now cashing in, according
to a recent study by Property Shark.
Th e study analyzed data on all the condos
Photo via Google Maps
Four eastern Queens nabes deemed most aff ordable in the borough
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
Eastern Queens saw a concentration
of the borough’s highly aff ordable areas
while western Queens was home to the
least aff ordable neighborhood in a new
real estate report.
Analysts from real estate site StreetEasy
compared the median sales price in each
New York City neighborhood with the
median sales price for its respective borough
to determine the most and least
aff ordable spots to live. In Queens, the
median sales price clocks in at $500,000.
In the “World’s Borough” — which
was divided into 53 separate neighborhoods
— Jamaica Estates was deemed
most aff ordable. Th e median home sales
price in this eastern Queens neighborhood
— with a housing stock ranging
from co-op apartments to large mansions
— was listed at $202,500: a nearly
60 percent diff erence from the borough
median.
Second and third most aff ordable were
neighboring Briarwood, Kew Gardens
Hills and Kew Gardens, where the median
sale prices are $225,000, $272,000 and
$282,944, respectively. Oakland Gardens,
Howard Beach and Little Neck came in at
numbers 5, 6 and 7.
Deemed least aff ordable was the western
Queens neighborhood of Long Island
City, where the median sale price was
$934,520 — 87 percent more than the borough
median. Ridgewood, Auburndale
and Fresh Meadows ranked second-,
third- and fourth-least aff ordable in
the borough, with median sale prices of
$930,000, $918,000 and $895,000.
Whitestone, South Ozone Park and
South Richmond Hill each saw median
sales prices at the borough median.
Although there is a price gap of more
than $700,000 between the most and least
expensive neighborhoods in the borough,
analysts noted, nearly half of all Queens
neighborhoods are “somewhat accessible
to the typical New York buyer.”
A report published by StreetEasy in
April determined that the cost of renting
or owning a home in Queens is closest
Photo via Creative Commons
to the citywide medians of any borough,
“making good on Queens’ reputation as
the place of choice for middle-class New
Yorkers.” Renters in the borough see a
36 percent cost-to-income ratio, while
homeowners face a marginally higher
cost-to-income ratio at 37 percent.
Visit StreetEasy.com to access an interactive
map of the city’s most and least
aff ordable neighborhoods.
and co-ops that were purchased in
New York City in 2008 and then sold
a decade later in 2017, and the results
showed a $177,000 increase in median
prices overall. In Queens, prices rose
roughly 32 percent during that time and
the median price is now $285,000.
With infl ation factored in, the median
price would have been $258,000 in
2008, meaning the current price increase
would be a more modest 10.5 percent.
Th e neighborhoods in Queens that
saw the highest increases in real estate
pricing are easy to guess. Long Island
City saw the most expensive transactions
and a median price increase of
$285,000. Th e most expensive sale in the
borough was a unit at 509 48th Ave. that
sold for nearly $2 million in 2017, which
was a 70 percent jump from what it sold
for in 2008.
Astoria showed the largest increase in
median price at $310,000. Ridgewood
and Glendale also saw a signifi cant
increase of $170,300 in median price,
likely a byproduct of neighboring
Bushwick showing one of Brooklyn’s
largest price increases.
As for the most active area of Queens
related to this study, Forest Hills had 31
properties that were purchased in 2008
and sold in 2017, but its median price
rose just $57,000.
Still, there were many areas in the borough
that fell on the opposite end of the
spectrum. Queens had the most neighborhoods
with no sales that qualifi ed for
the study, and seven ZIP codes actually
saw a decrease in sale price.
One property in Broad Channel sold
for $31,000 less than it was purchased
for in 2008, while another sale in the
Laurelton area went for $17,000 less.
In Howard Beach, an area that was hit
hard by Superstorm Sandy in 2012, eight
qualifying sales were made at a median
loss of $11,250.
Th e study also notes that Queens and
Brooklyn had the same number of properties
that were purchased in 2008 and
sold in 2017, but Queens remained
much more aff ordable.
Homes in Ridgewood
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