West Harlem Named Top Neighborhood To Watch In 2018: Study

HARLEM, NY — Watch out West Harlem residents — the secret is out on your neighborhood. Real estate listing site StreetEast has named the neighborhood the top "up and coming" neighborhood for 2018 in a new study.

By "up and coming" StreetEast means that home prices, rents and overall interest in the area could be increasing next year, according to the website's annual study. StreetEast defines West Harlem as the area bounded by West 125th and 135th streets between Broadway and St. Nicholas Avenue.

The study determines which neighborhoods are most up and coming by looking at the following four factors:

• Median sales price;
• Median rental price;
• Views on StreetEasy listings;
• New certificates of occupancy filed with the city.

West Harlem is the first Manhattan neighborhood to take the top spot in StreetEasy's annual study, according to the listings website. The neighborhood rose in the rankings due to its "tremendous growth in sales price," which figures to keep increasing through 2018.

"Neighborhoods like West Harlem, Woodside, and Prospect Park South, which have long been outshined by their popular neighbors, are finally taking the spotlight in 2018," StreetEasy Senior Economist Grant Long said in a statement. "As New Yorkers seek to balance affordability with convenience, these nearby neighborhoods are seeing a surge of interest, growing prices, and an influx of new development."

West Harlem is becoming more attractive to home buyers due to its median sales price of $456,425 which — even after a 124 percent yearly increase — remains lower than many other Manhattan neighborhoods.

Chinatown was the only other Manhattan neighborhood to make StreetEasy's list at No. 9. Fort Greene, Flushing, Elmhurst and East New York rounded out the top five neighborhoods.

Read StreetEasy's full study here.

Photo by Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press