Harlem Housing Prices Still Increasing, but at Slower Rate: Report

HARLEM, NY — The real estate boom in New York City may be slowing down, at least according to a StreetEasy report analyzing real estate data from July. The report's main finding: real estate prices are going up, but at the slowest rate in years.

Across the entire borough of Manhattan real estate prices increased just 2 percent year-over-year in July, which was the mildest increase since April 2012, according to the report. The median resale price for Manhattan in July was $994,458.

"Though prices are still climbing, sellers will need to continue to level expectations amid a less competitive market, while buyers have the opportunity to negotiate asking prices down even further amid slowing price growth and homes spending more time on the market," reads the report.

The study also used StreetEasy's metric "tipping point" to suggest that the market is more buyer-friendly than years past. The tipping point of a neighborhood is the number of years you'd have to spend in a home for it to be worth buying instead of renting.

Compared to the rest of the borough, resale prices are rising at a higher rates in Harlem, but are still relatively more affordable.

In Central Harlem the median resale price for homes was $878,000, which represent a year-over-year increase of 11.8 percent. In July 2015 median prices were $785,000, a 28.2 percent increase year-over-year. So, even though prices increased, they did so at a nearly 17 percent slower rate.

The median rent was $2,500 for Central Harlem in 2016, 8.7 percent higher than last year. The tipping point decreased 34.7 percent to a value of 2.4.

In South Harlem median resale prices rose 10.2 percent to $975,000, just below the median price of the borough. In July 2015 median prices were $885,000, which was a year-over-year decrease of 0.2 percent. In South Harlem prices are actually increasing faster in 2016, making the area an outlier compared to the rest of the neighborhood.

In July, the median rent for South Harlem was $2,875, a 2.9 percent increase from July 2015. The tipping point for the area was 8.3, a decrease of 4 percent.

In East Harlem the numbers were more consistent with borough-wide trends. Median resale prices went up 2.5 percent to $699,000. In July 2015 median prices were $682,125, which represented an 18.8 percent increase compared to prices in 2014. In East Harlem the rate at which prices are increasing is more than 16 percent lower in 2016.

In terms of median rents in East Harlem, prices went up 7.2 percent to $2,408. In addition, the tipping point actually increased 19.2 percent to a value of 4.3 in East Harlem, showing the area is becoming less buyer-friendly.

The study contained very little data about West Harlem sales and did not include any information regarding year-over-year changes in prices for the area.

Photo: Shutterstock