Luxury housing and gentrification in New York City, 2010-2019

ABSTRACT

In recent years, New York City has experienced a boom in high end “luxury” construction. This paper maps the spatial expansion of the luxury housing market, using a GIS analysis of over 50,000 high-end real estate sales. It analyzes how the building boom contributed to super-gentrification, the further upgrading of already gentrified neighborhoods. The luxury housing market grew 102% during the 2010s, following two spatial patterns: an intensification of luxury development in already-affluent neighborhoods (especially on the west side of Manhattan) and an expansion into more recently gentrified neighborhoods (especially in northern and central Brooklyn). The luxury market is concentrated in areas that have 81% higher incomes and 31% more white residents that the rest of the city, though new luxury construction occurred in areas with a more diverse racial and class mix. While luxury development has expanded into marginally less-elite neighborhoods, it typically occurs in already gentrified places.

KEYWORDS:

• Housing
• gentrification
• real estate
• New York City

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. In the State of New York, residential property sales are subject to a 0.4% real estate transfer tax. Since 1989, sales over $1,000,000 have been subject to a higher 1% “mansion tax”. In 2019 the mansion tax was further increased within New York City. The new mansion tax is a progressive rate ranging from 1.25% (on properties starting at $2,000,000) to 3.9% (on properties over $25,000,000).

2. SoHo/Tribeca (14.3% of total spending on residential properties over $2mn/unit from 2003–2009), Lincoln Square (13.9%), Midtown (13.2%), Upper East Side (11.1%), Chelsea (9.8%), West Village (7.2%), Lenox Hill (5.4%), Upper West Side (5.1%), and Lower Manhattan (3.2%)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the City University of New York [Faculty Innovation Fund, Medgar Evers College]; City University of New York [Geospatial Center, Bronx Community College]; Research Foundation of The City University of New York [PSC-CUNY Award # 63097-00 51].