Peripatetic New Yorkers are always looking for the next big thing. As rents and sales prices rise in many affordable neighborhoods across the city, that mission hits close to home — especially for those on the hunt for a good deal in an up-and-coming area.
If a move is on the horizon in 2020, consider one of the city’s enclaves poised for major change this year. Real estate data and listings startup Localize.city ran the numbers to find out which New York neighborhoods are home to the most new condos and rentals opening to occupants this year.
The eight neighborhoods that are expecting the most almost-complete apartments span Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn, running the gamut from the towering Financial District to recently rezoned East New York. Alongside all the new real estate development, though, parks and other amenities have popped up or are in the pipeline.
So no matter where you live in New York, there’s always something to look forward to.
Long Island City
Long Island City is poised to get the largest number of new apartments in 2020 of any neighborhood in the city — with 2,022 — but most will arrive via a few major projects. Chief among them is the two-towered rental on the site of the now-razed graffiti mecca 5Pointz, which will bring 1,122 units to the neighborhood by summer.
Prices have risen in step: According to StreetEasy, the median asking sales price has risen from $645,000 in 2010 to $1.2 million in 2019. But the formerly industrial area retains a tranquil air. A quick stint in Midtown turned Gaia Bellia, 30, off.
“Manhattan was too crowded, too noisy, not my cup of hectic,” says Bellia, a native of Italy who moved stateside from Sudan to continue working for UNICEF. Colleagues recommended the slower pace and smaller scale of Long Island City. With the help of Mary V. Torres at Modern Spaces, Bellia moved into a furnished one-bedroom apartment with skyline views asking $3,470.
“It’s not exciting,” adds Bellia of Long Island City, “but it feels like a normal neighborhood to me.”
Financial District
Once a neighborhood of worker bees that was a ghost town after 5 p.m., FiDi has seen a residential surge over the last decade.
Median asking rents ballooned from $3,100 in 2010 to $3,808 in 2019; median asking prices from $980,000 to $1.4 million. Among the new projects debuting this year are the blockbuster office-to-566 condo conversion of Ralph Walker’s iconic One Wall Street (above).
Towers by architectural heavyweights — David Adjaye’s 130 William St. and Rafael Viñoly’s 125 Greenwich St. — will bring 515 condos to the neighborhood this summer, with prices averaging $2.5 million and $2.8 million, respectively.
The former site of J&R Music and Computer World along City Hall Park has sprouted 110 condos that will open in early 2020 at 25 Park Row. The residential influx spurs amenities, too: Alamo Drafthouse will open a 14-screen movie theater at 28 Liberty, where a 35,000-square-foot complex with food and live music is also underway.
Flatbush
Tove Hermanson, 41, and partner Jeffrey Leib, 49 (above), bought a house in Flatbush last year — which they are now renovating — after 10 years of renting in Boerum Hill.
Hermanson, an interior designer with Leroy Street Studio, and Leib, a nonprofit fundraising technology consultant, paid $910,000 for a Flatbush townhome with Compass’ Chamberlin Syrett Team.
It delivered on their square footage needs and desire for historic character while also staying within their price range. The duo likes the liveliness of their street, especially in summer when sidewalk barbecuing is common. They also found an unexpected pleasure in the kindness of neighbors.
“In Boerum Hill, people would steal our Amazon boxes all the time,” Leib says. “No one steals anything here.”
Flatbush, home to the beautifully restored Kings Theatre, also has three major new-development projects — The Lois, Hello Nostrand and Crystal Apartments — poised to open.
Jamaica
Four large developments will bring nearly 1,000 apartments to the central Queens area this year, with more than half coming in The Crossing at Jamaica Station (above), a massive mixed-use development adjacent to the AirTrain and Long Island Rail Road stations.
Pricing hasn’t been announced, but the area’s median asking rent hovers around $2,200, per StreetEasy.
Given its reasonable median asking sales price of $609,000 and exceptional access to public transit — it’s bisected by the E, J, Z and F trains — StreetEasy also saw it rise in listings search popularity during 2019.
Downtown Brooklyn
A 2004 upzoning of Downtown Brooklyn reshaped the area surrounding the Brooklyn Bridge’s ramps into a warren of high-rise rental and condo towers.
Over the last five years, the area’s witnessed a parade of new developments that battled over the title of Brooklyn’s tallest. That distinction now belongs to Extell’s Brooklyn Point, a 483-condo tower set to debut in early 2020 at 138 Willoughby St.
It’s 720 feet tall with a mind-boggling rooftop pool. Another skyline-denting building, Studio Gang’s 620-foot-tall 11 Hoyt (above), will also open its 481 condos to buyers in 2020.
And this procession of new skyscrapers has come with neighborhood perks like an Alamo Drafthouse, a Target, a Century 21 and the buzzy Dekalb Market food hall.
The neighborhood’s also geared up to get a long-awaited 1.15-acre public green space called Willoughby Square Park by late 2021.
Bed-Stuy
Brownstone-filled Bed-Stuy will welcome a whopping 59 new developments this year, the most of any neighborhood on the list.
Most are smaller four- to eight-apartment buildings, but larger openings like the 182-unit building at 1134 Fulton St. are on the docket, too. “Construction follows the blueprint” of a 2012 rezoning, according to Localize.city urban planning analyst Dan Levine.
”The avenues, especially Myrtle, Bedford and Nostrand, will see five- to seven-story buildings — and a few as tall as 10 stories. Smaller buildings are going up almost everywhere across the rest of the neighborhood.”
The rezoning also led to an uptick in pricing: Median asking prices rose from $462,000 in 2012 to $1.2 million in 2019. Median asking rents went from $1,650 to $2,639.
East Harlem
A 2017 rezoning hasn’t led to much concrete change yet, but there are still new developments to watch: The Carolina at 1465 Park Ave. will bring 400 affordable apartments to the neighborhood in 2020.
And noted architect Bjarke Ingels’ 149 E. 125th St. is set to debut 233 rentals. Pricing hasn’t been unveiled, but the area’s average median asking rent is $2,400.
Joining the 6 train, the Second Avenue Subway’s Q line will extend to East Harlem in another decade.
Three new stations are expected to open by 2029, granting easier access to the stock of affordable and market-rate apartments — as well as its lovely brownstones.
In Central Park’s northern reaches, a $150 million project to buff up the Harlem Meer and rebuild the Lasker Rink and Pool is slated to wrap up by 2024.
East New York
Developer The Arker Companies is opening its major mixed-use affordable housing development in East New York this year.
Dubbed The Fountains, it will bring 1,163 affordable apartments to the neighborhood by early 2021, with most of the units opening to tenants this year.
The apartments are reserved for New Yorkers who make less than $58,000 a year for a family of three.
The development will also bring new retail shops, community facilities and a public plaza to the neighborhood. Another two-building affordable development, Van Sinderen Plaza, is also on the way.
The first part of 407-acre Shirley Chisholm State Park debuted in 2019 with strolling and biking pathways. The next portion will open in 2021.