By Gus Saltonstall
The Upper West Side had the second most home sales of any New York City neighborhood last year, according to new data released this week.
This fact came out when PropertyShark, a real estate data provider, published its annual list on Thursday of the “Top 50 Most Expensive NYC Neighborhoods.” It calculated the rankings based on residential property home sales closed between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025, and then took the median price of those sales for all New York City neighborhoods that had at least five transactions.
The Upper West Side was near the top of the list of one category in the 2025 report: number of sales.
There were 1,282 home sales on the Upper West Side in 2025, the second most of any neighborhood in New York City during the period, according to Property Shark. Additionally, PropertyShark classified Lincoln Square as a separate neighborhood from the Upper West Side, which had the third-highest number of sales last year in New York City at 939.
Here are the top five neighborhoods with the most sales in 2025.
- Lenox Hill: 1,476 sales in 2025
- Upper West Side: 1,282 sales in 2025
- Lincoln Square: 939 sales in 2025
- Chelsea: 712 sales in 2025
- Williamsburg: 658 sales in 2025
The Upper West Side, along with the Upper East Side, routinely leads the city in the number of homes sold and bought each year, in part, because they are among the largest residential neighborhoods in any borough.
The number of homes sold on the Upper West Side did increase 10 percent from 2024 to 2025, according to PropertyShark, and the number of homes sold in Lincoln Square increased by 24 percent during the same period.
Another element of the study that might surprise some readers was that the Upper West Side was not in the top 30 most expensive neighborhoods for home prices in New York City for 2025, according to the new data.
The Upper West Side ranked as the 32nd most expensive neighborhood in the five boroughs for 2025, according to PropertyShark.
- Median Sale Price 2025: $1,263,000
- Median Sale Price 2024: $1,300,000
- Year-Over-Year Change: -3 percent
The median home sale price on the Upper West Side dropped $37,000 in 2025, when compared to 2024.
The five most expensive neighborhoods in New York City for 2025 included Central Park South, which can be considered part of the Upper West Side, but PropertyShark, like WSR, classifies it as a separate nabe.
- Hudson Yards: $5,577,000 median home sale price
- SoHo: $3,725,000 median home sale price
- TriBeCa: $3,700,000 median home sale price
- NoHo: $3,308,000 median home sale price
- Central Park South: $2,925,000 median home sale price
You can check out the full study for yourself — HERE.
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Volume of sales is a hard metric to use as a ranking, as each neighborhood has different populations and densities.
The price info is interesting. The increasing costs to maintain older housing coupled with the City’s multi-decade above-inflation property tax increases are clearly hurting home values.
In some ways I truly miss the UWS apart. I grew up in on 215 W88th street .
It’s just way too costly for me, so we bought a house in NJ. No parking difficulties for sure!
How is Central Park South part of the UWS, but not Lincoln Square?
How is 96th Street and North?
Another important metric is the % change in price of sold units; how much down? I doubt there are too many bidders for an up in price.
This report is borderline worthless. It uses the median price for all sales/neighborhood.
Hudson Yards is almost all new, large high end condos. Is such a condo on that UWS any less expensive?
Is the median price here down because of lower prices or an increase in sales of smaller units?
There is little value here.
There has been very little new construction on the UWS compared to the UES. Also Hudson Yards completely throws off mean prices for the west side.