If you’re moving to New York City and want to find the most popular rental neighborhoods, it makes sense to follow locals in the know. Recently, RentHop did just that by studying web traffic to New York City listings that originated from within the city. Search volume in February and April of this year was analyzed to rank each neighborhood for popularity, and data from a year earlier was used to find how the rankings changed over time.
Two Queens neighborhoods and four Brooklyn neighborhoods showed increased popularity. Astoria, Queens, rose to the top from ninth place a year ago. In Brooklyn, Bedford-Stuyvesant, climbed from 12th position to fourth, Williamsburg rose from 11th to sixth, and Bushwick went from 16th to seventh.
Those boroughs appear to be taking renters from Manhattan: Only four of its 14 neighborhoods in the top 20 increased in popularity during the year, while 10 of its neighborhoods fell. The Upper East Side held steady in second place over a year, but the East Village dropped from first place to third. Other drops in Manhattan included Greenwich Village and the West Village, ranked 10th and 11th, each dropping six spots from last year; and the Bowery area ranked 13th, falling seven spots.
Comparing the current average one-bedroom rent in Manhattan ($4,395) to that in Brooklyn ($3,600) and Queens ($2,721) makes it clear that prices have something to do with popularity. Looking at the two top neighborhoods in the study, we find that Astoria’s average one-bedroom now goes for $2,773, up a meager 2 percent over a year. The Upper East Side’s average is $3,600, up 5 percent over a year.
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