Park Slope Land Is Second Most Expensive In The Country: Report

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — One acre of land to build a home costs more in Park Slope than nearly any other neighborhood in the country, a new report found. Both eastern and central portions of the neighborhood made a list of the top ten spots with the highest-priced land values in the country.

The average one-acre plot would cost $34.7 million in Eastern Park Slope, landing it the second highest on the list. And, not far behind in eighth place, was Central Park Slope, where one acre went for an average of $25.9 million, according to an analysis of almost 40,000 U.S. neighborhoods released by the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Nearby Brooklyn Heights made it to the top of the list with a $41 million average price tag. In all, Brooklyn neighborhoods took up four spots on the list, with Brooklyn Heights, the Park Slope portions and Gowanus/Carroll Gardens joining other wealthy coastal areas in California.

"We know why," a report on the data in The Washington Post said. "Ultra-valuable land in Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope is significantly closer to the F train, food co-ops and high-paying jobs than is the rolling farmland in Western Arkansas or Northern South Carolina. They also tend to have higher taxes and zoning restrictions."

The $23 million to $41 million cost of land in these top ten was significantly higher than the lowest value per acre, found in more rural southern areas, all for under $7,000.

The Post and the report's authors contended that it reveals that not only is the distribution of land wealth unequal, but the growth in that wealth as well. The spots with the most expensive land were also where values were growing the fastest.

"People often focus on what causes rising land prices," The Post wrote. "But few ask the crucial follow-up: what do rising land prices cause? Right now, the answer is inequality."

The data can also help researchers predict where housing bubbles could appear, the report said, since large increases in land prices often show where "house price busts during the financial crisis."

The researchers — William Larson and Jessica Shui (FHFA), Morris Davis (Rutgers) and Stephen Oliner (American Enterprise Institute) — analyzed 16 million appraisals submitted between 2012 and 2018 and stripped away the value of the homes to only measure the cost of land.

The report didn't account for some other New York City neighborhoods, though.
"A few neighborhoods (Census tracts) where land for single-family homes is extraordinarily expensive, such as Manhattan, and where it would be quite affordable, such as many sparsely populated rural areas, won't appear in the study because there weren't many relevant transactions," the Post explained.

Read the full report here.

Photo by Liana Messina/Patch