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Queens is poised to unseat Brooklyn as hottest NYC borough

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Brooklyn may have lost its title as the hottest New York City borough, a new report posits.

StreetEasy’s10 NYC Neighborhoods to watch in 2024” list suggests that the World’s Borough will be crowned the hottest borough in New York City, after a red-hot 2023.

“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,” the report by the Zillow-owned listings portal reads.

The top 10 list contains five neighborhoods in Queens, two in Manhattan, and three in Brooklyn, with trendy Ridgewood, Queens, in the number one spot.

Ridgewood has gentrified considerably over the past decade but remains affordable by New York standards, with a median asking rent of $3,000 — 8 percent lower than adjoining neighborhood Bushwick but up 3.3 percent from the previous year. Renter interest in Ridgewood spiked over the past year with a 10.7 percent increase in searches on StreetEasy during 2023, according to the report.

For buyers, the median asking price in Ridgewood is $1,149,000, flat from the previous year. The neighborhood also ranked second on StreetEasy’s top neighborhoods for college graduates in 2023, thanks to its high concentration of bars, restaurants, music venues and cafes.

Other Queens neighborhoods on the list include Hunter’s Point, a micro-neighborhood within Long Island City that landed at the number two spot. Jackson Heights, known for its diversity and equally diverse food options, landed at number four, while quiet, residential Kew Gardens and Woodside landed at spots six and seven, respectively.

The report also predicted a resurgence in interest in Manhattan among renters, despite the central borough’s extremely high rents, which stabilized at the end of 2023 to a median of $4,050, according to Douglas Elliman. 

“While Queens remains hot, driven by a boom in new developments in recent years, StreetEasy predicts Manhattan will start to regain popularity among renters this year as its rental prices begin to drop,” the report reads. “Trendy sub-neighborhoods of ever-popular areas like SoHo and the Upper East Side will take the lead in the borough.”

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