By Gus Saltonstall
It has never been more expensive to purchase a home in New York City, says a new study from Property Shark, but what are the numbers on the Upper West Side?
In the second quarter of 2025, which is the beginning of April through the end of June, the median sale price of a home in the five boroughs was $799,000, which is the highest in recorded history, according to the real estate data website.
Here’s what the study had to say about our neighborhood.
Upper West Side
- Median Sale Price Q2 2025: $1.3 million
- Change from 2024: 2 percent increase in price
- Number of sales in Q2 2025: 578 home sales
- Change from 2024: 9 percent increase in sales
The Upper West Side came in as the 22nd most expensive neighborhood in New York City based on median home sale price, according to Property Shark. The UWS trailed just the Upper East Side in the number of total home sales during Q2 of 2025, when 578 residents sold properties in the neighborhood, the study says.
The five most expensive neighborhoods in New York City during the latest quarter were all in Lower Manhattan.
- Hudson Yards: $5.95 million median home sale price
- TriBeCa: $4.15 million median home sale price
- SoHo: 3.68 million median home sale price
- Little Italy: 2.5 million median home sale price
- Hudson Square: 2.4 million median home sale price
The Lower Manhattan neighborhoods routinely rank as the most expensive in New York City, in part because they are smaller and have less housing stock. The Upper West Side also consistently comes in somewhere between the 20th and 30th most expensive nabe in the five boroughs, as it did when it had the 26th highest median home sale price in quarter three of 2023, a past Property Shark study shows.
Overall, Manhattan and Brooklyn accounted for 46 of the total 54 most expensive neighborhoods in New York City from April to June of this year.
You can check out the full study for yourself — HERE.
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
Gawd, that’s such incompetence. Where’s the per-sq-ft ranking? How is anyone in their right mind comparing Hudson Yards – with 7 transactions – all likely of a very specific size and age – to UWS with 578 transactions?!
They might as well include transactions at a specific address, on the 26th floor, closing on a Tuesday afternoon.
It ought to be obvious that a neighborhood of brand new luxury, family size condos is going to be more expensive than one of older coops that lack pools, shuttle buses, etc.
So what? Folk reading this aren’t investors and aren’t buying up property for investment purposes. And if they are they aren’t doing it based on this article.
What is important to the readership is whether housing prices are rising or falling, whether the City and the UWS are holding their own, growing, or in decline.
And for that purpose this is good news.
It is not good news. Rising housing prices are bad for everyone except people buying property for investment purposes.
Reasonable appreciation is good for several reasons including the fact that it attracts development while stagnation or deflation means no development will happen.
If you think lowered prices are good I’d suggest you check out Baltimore.
It’s good for homeowners who are ready to sell and are looking to relocate, downsize and retire.
Someone who owns property and wants to sell it for a profit to buy something else – a property investor.
(I would argue that rising property prices aren’t as good as they seem even for homeowners – you still need some place to live and selling your house for a big price isn’t worth much if everywhere you want to move to is expensive too. It would be better for most people if they didn’t need to relocate and could continue to live in their neighborhood near their friends and family).
Someone who owns the home they live in and use the increases in value to pay for such as their kids’ college education and who takes the money out when they’re ready to downsize and uses it to cover their costs as they age?
It’s called normal.
If you care to do the research and the calculations, and compile a report on per-square-foot ranking, I’m sure buyers and sellers in the neighborhood would appreciate it.
No, thanks. There’s an entire caste of “property sharks” doing “studies” like that for a living (if not appreciation); apparently, here we’re quoting the ones who didn’t.
Can we finally admit that the concept of “affordable housing” in NYC is nothing but a meaningless phrase and a mean joke? When a family pulling in $100,000/year can apply for “affordable housing,” then the phrase is entirely meaningless.
What a tragic joke when the people who really NEED housing will NEVER be able to afford it, even through lotteries,.
You commit the common misconception that ‘affordable housing’ is low income housing.
It’s not. It’s inclusive of people doing the work that’s essential to the operation of a community, such as EMTs, teachers, nurses, etc…
REALLY?! Show me that definition anywhere.
Sure, okay.
“Housing is considered ‘affordable’ when a household spends no more than 1/3
of its income on rent and utilities.” https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/services/mwbe-rfp-trainig-intro-to-affordable-housing.pdf
And all of you have just proved my point. If we are talking no more than 1/3 of income for rent and utilities, then do the math. A family bringing in $100,000 is bringing in $8,333/month. 1/3 of that would be $2,777. And you think these people could find an apartment for that amount in a market in which the average 2-bedroom apartment rental price is $4,790?
In fact, if you look at the next page in that document you will see that the apartment prices that would be considered acceptable as “affordable housing” for a family of three making between $100,000 and $130,000 would be between $2400 and $3200/month. Good luck with that. And we haven’t even gotten to utilities yet.
Thus, they would have to spend WELL beyond 1/3 of their monthly or annual income on rent and utilities, and should thus NOT be eligible for “affordable housing.”
Thank you for proving my point.
Obviously the private sector, acting alone, doesn’t create affordable housing and why the government uses a variety of tools towards its development.
Really not that hard to find this: “Housing is considered “affordable” when a household spends no more than 1/3 of its income on rent and utilities. Affordable housing is usually achieved through a combination of below-market loans, subsidies, and tax incentives offered in exchange for a set of affordability terms written into a regulatory agreement for a set period of years, usually no less than 30, and sometimes permanent. Affordable housing is not: ▪ Public housing, although public housing is a source of affordable housing; ▪ Section 8 vouchers, although Section 8 vouchers can be used in coordination with affordable housing development; ▪ Always low-income housing, although much of the affordable housing financed is for lower income households. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/services/mwbe-rfp-trainig-intro-to-affordable-housing.pdf
REALLY? You can look it up and you’ll see it’s housing priced so a family is paying 1/3 f income towards rent/ownership.
https://www.nyc.gov/assets/hpd/downloads/pdfs/services/mwbe-rfp-trainig-intro-to-affordable-housing.pdf (at page 4)
Or you can do what I did and spend two decades working with developers of low income housing (like project based Section 8 and supportive) and affordable housing (like units set aside for people making “only” 130% of AMI) and you’ll get it.
But the bottom line is that in a City where six figures isn’t enough to raise a family (On $100k, of income the ‘affordable’ threshold would be a $2,750/month housing cost) “affordable” is used to house people with as much as 160% of AMI.
Could we instead focus on how much it costs to operate housing on the UWS and do a deep dive into tax assessments? That data is all public.
I’m sure if WSR did an all-call to the many co-op board members in the neighborhood, they would get great stories about how the cost of living is increasing beyond purchase price.
The story is much deeper than headlines about apartment sales.
If you’re in a coop it’s easy. The actual cost of operating your apartment is your maintenance net of the amount for property taxes and mortgage.
And it’s a pretty low number relative to most rents and maintenance including taxes and mortgage.
It’s why government can promote affordable housing through the use of tax breaks and very low interest mortgages.
Co-op maintenance includes the real estate taxes and underlying mortgage for the building (if there is one). Real estate taxes on many buildings in the neighborhood have increased much faster than inflation over the last 15 years.
Renters pay higher property taxes.
Compared with the owners of co-ops and condos, the owners of rental buildings pay much higher taxes. Damon Pazzaglini, chief operating officer of Fetner Properties, a real estate company, said taxes are the biggest component of a building’s expenses. As they rise, building owners typically pass on the cost to renters.
“This is one of the biggest drivers of high rents in New York that exists,” Mr. Pazzaglini said.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/02/nyregion/nyc-property-tax.html
Actually co-ops are classed as rental properties and pay the same taxes as rentals.
One of the big drivers of cost increases in my building is property taxes. The City keeps raising taxes, but city services do not keep improving.
This is very true. Especially for smaller co-ops and condos where the finance department l’s methodology is indefensible and different.
been there done that- paid my flip tax too -bye bye co-op life
Couldn’t be more SPOT ON. If you’re listening Westside rack please do something on this. Monthly Maintenance have doubled in many buildings over the past decade (or less), with more frequent and sizable assessments. MOST of this is driven by disproportionate tax increases and city regs/ requirements (ie Local Law 11). Also, as the prewar building age in an ever tougher weather world, upkeep takes its toll.
I’d love to see a piece on how monthly taxes/maint is often 2x what it is on an apartment in Brooklyn that has the same “sticker”. NOTE- I understand how taxes as “set” based on rental equivalents, but they’re flat out WRONG
I agree. There is a story here. However, no one wants to discuss these things because they are too complicated to explain in a few sentences. Instead, it simply returns to the sociopolitical discourse of bridging the divide between those who have and those who want.
Build more.
To put a finer point on it, we need to build LOTS more!
And yet somehow the UWS is one of the most densely populated neighborhoods in the country. For all of the people screaming “build more housing” here, what level of density do they imagine finally becoming intolerable?
Ditto the rest of Manhattan.
yes in fact my ai overview indicates uws is denser than hong kong and manila – hard to believe
Yes. The UWS is dense! Too many dogs. They require space in apartments, too. Ditch the dogs and have more space!
Indeed! We got a dog and then realized he would need his own bedroom, so we had to send our 14-yr-old son to live with my in-laws on a farm upstate.
Dogs have nothing to do with space. You can live in a tiny cave and … guess what?! Dogs are indeed descended from wolves; they are cave dwellers. You can have a castle or just a mansion … and a good dog is still right beneath your feet. If you don’t like dogs, just say so. But they have nothing to do with space at all.
While there are areas for improvement on the UWS, I would probably start with massive up zoning of lower density neighborhoods near transit like Hells Kitchen, and close in areas of Brooklyn/Queens which are shockingly low rise.
For instance Paris has an overall higher population density than NYC because the non-downtown neighborhoods are much denser than what we allow.
Paris is 40 square miles. NYC is 300.
IF you just look at the 40 square miles that are Manhattan (about 22) and the closest neighborhoods of the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens?
The density here is higher.
Sure NYC is more comparable to Paris if you just look at only the densest neighborhoods. Point is that density should be embraced.
Overall, more density is a good thing, its part of the magic of NYC that supports all these local businesses and provides property/income tax to pay for police, teachers, parks and infrastructure, etc.
Pretty simply – Keep building housing as long as people are happy to buy/rent it.
Density is “intolerable” for some people and an attraction for others. The UWS is so expensive because lots of people want to live in a dense neighborhood.
No worries, after we get our new communist mayor the average price will drop to 100K. That penthouse in One 57 will sell for 250K
Inshallah!
Allowing more new construction and taller buildings would drop the prices of older and smaller buildings.
Tim problem is the cost to build. Just to renovate a one bedroom in our area it cost 300K for mid end renovation 500K for high end for 700 sf. And 6 months …… And that is on a unit that cost 800K to buy.
I wish subsidized housing was tied to specific professions vs income levels. There could be many reasons, including ways to game the system of how to stay qualified, that might free up the supply to those who should have it. I once had a staff member on my team who refused a promotion and raise because she said the high income would make her lose subsidies. But I knew she ran side hustles for extra cash. I thought the promotion would help her be able to advance towards self sufficiency. The system is broken and this is why IMO we will never have enough housing at the lower income levels.
Agree 100% Helen. It’s all in the execution – we should be rewarding valuable lower paid professions with affordable housing, rather than having people luck into these apartments and then keep them forever.
Please define the UWS neighborhood for this study.
Amazing why anyone would now consider UWS as a place to live. We’ve been here when it was a convenient, clean, good neighborhood. Now sadly its nothing –nothing after 7/8pm is open. Its desolate. No convenience stores ,no home goods stores, no general merch stores, just empty empty empty store fronts. The UES is the place to spend your money.
One important note is that there are many more apartments on the upper east side than the west side. The upper east has many more post war Bldgs then we do on the west side. These Bldgs have 150 to 200 units each. The majority of Bldgs here are prewar, many pre world war 1 which have much fewer units, usually 60 to maybe 120.