Code red!
Some of the Big Apple’s ritziest ZIP codes are seeing home values plummet amid the sustained exodus from the city caused by the pandemic, spiraling crime and ballooning taxes, experts told The Post.
This year, there are only three New York City locales on Zillow’s list of the 100 most expensive ZIP codes in the country – down 75% from the 12 Manhattan neighborhoods on the pre-pandemic 2019 list.
And the three Manhattan postal codes that remain on the 2024 list have seen their prestige wane:
- 10013, which encompasses parts of Tribeca and Soho, dropped from the fifth priciest ZIP in the country in 2019 to 31st place in 2024, with the typical home value plummeting from $3,667,770 to $2,880,322.
- Tribeca’s 10007 went from 16th place in 2019 to 47th this year, as average prices dipped from $2,964,729 to $2,880,322.
- Soho and Greenwich Village’s 10012 — which includes Washington Square Park and parts of New York University– fell off a cliff from 27th in 2019 to 77th this year, with values decreasing from $2,636,977 to $2,391,539.
- Nine of Gotham’s historically swanky ZIPs that are no longer in the Top 100: Chelsea’s 10001; 10024, which encompasses parts of the Upper West Side; Lincoln Park’s 10069; Flatiron’s 10010; and 10282, which covers Battery Park City.
Ken Girardin, the research director for the Albany-based think tank, Empire Center for Public Policy, blamed the pandemic-induced exodus and sky-high taxes for plummeting home values in the Big Apple.
“In terms of high value residential real estate, one of the biggest factors to consider is that living in New York City now means paying potentially the highest combined state and local income tax rate in the country … and that is something that people are considering when they’re deciding where they want to live,” Girardin told The Post.
“If you are fabulously wealthy and your primary residence is in Florida, you can spend time in New York City without the city or state getting to tax your capital gains. But if you’re looking for one residence and looking to be there year-round, you’re facing a massive tax bite by moving to Manhattan,” Girardin said.
Surging crime and homelessness is also a significant factor in the declining desire to live in neighborhoods such as Soho, Tribeca and Greenwich Village, according to Eric Benaim, the president of the NYC-based real estate group Modern Spaces.
“There has also been a shortage of housing [in New York City] and interest rates are really high, so that causes less people to move around, and less people moving around means fewer transactions,” Benaim explained.
“For now, I would look at this as an opportunity to buy – as what goes down must come up,” the ever-optimistic real estate agent added.
Indeed, luxury Big Apple realtors are holding onto hope that a six-bedroom, 6,900-square-foot condo like No. 6 at 62 Wooster Street in Soho’s 10013 ZIP code – which is currently on the market for a whopping $35,000,000 – will defy the damning Zillow data.
Besides the three Manhattan ZIP codes, eight Long Island locales made the Top 100.
In Sagaponack’s 11962 ZIP code – ranked the fourth most expensive in the country for the last two years — a three-bedroom home on a two-and-a-quarter acre property at 40 Narrow Lane East is on the market for $6,995,000.
Suffolk County’s Water Mill is the 10th most expensive ZIP code in the country this year, while Bridgehampton came in at 21st, Amagansett at 35th, Quogue at 54th, Wainscott at 60th, Mill Neck at 68th, and Old Westbury at 75th.
ZIP code 94027 in Atherton, CA – home to the likes of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham – has been the most expensive ZIP code every year since 2019.
This year, the typical home value in Atherton is $7,482,536, up from $6,169,136 five years ago.
