Astoria, LIC Are Queens's 'Most Coveted' Neighborhoods: Study

ASTORIA, QUEENS — If it feels like all your friends in Brooklyn and Manhattan are looking to move to Northwest Queens, you aren't wrong — Astoria and Long Island City are the borough's most "coveted" neighborhoods, according to a new study.

The report was released Wednesday by the real estate site StreetEasy, which revealed the neighborhoods in Queens, Brooklyn and Manhattan that had been searched the most times this year on its platform.

Long Island City and Astoria ranked first and second in Queens based on total searches for rentals and homes for sale, according to StreetEasy. They were followed by Sunnyside, Forest Hills and Ridgewood.

Still, the top Queens neighborhoods are notable for their relative affordability — with prices that are "closer to reality," as StreetEasy puts it.

Top-searched Long Island City has a median asking rent of $3,575 and a median asking price of $795,000 as of this summer — lower than any of the most-searched neighborhoods in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Manhattan's West Village, for example, has a median rent of $4,895 and sale price of $1,497,000. Williamsburg, the top-searched Brooklyn neighborhood, clocked a $4,400 median asking rent this summer and a $1,480,000 asking sale price, StreetEasy reports.

Astoria's median asking rent of $2,650 is just slightly above the Queens-wide median of $2,600, StreetEasy reports.

"Queens boasts all types of homes the city can offer. Gleaming high rises by the waterfront in Long Island City offer rentals with a convenient commute to Manhattan," StreetEasy economist Kenny Lee said in a statement. "And with the borough-wide median price per square foot at $608, first-time buyers can score a larger home in Queens, compared to Manhattan and Brooklyn."

Since 2017, when StreetEasy began tracking the search data, Astoria and Long Island City have consistently held the top two spots, though they frequently trade back and forth for number one.

Sunnyside and Forest Hills have likewise stayed at numbers three and four, but Jackson Heights and Woodside made occasional appearances as the fifth-most-searched neighborhood before being dethroned by Ridgewood this year, according to the study.

Read the full study on StreetEasy's website.