Ms. Chan, who bought her two-bedroom apartment in Greenpoint four years ago with her husband, said she was sad to sell, because the construction boom brought needed resources to the area: new retail, restaurants and child-care options for their two young children. The building, part of a former pencil factory that was converted to apartments, was completed in 2010. But now they need more space for their children, and finding a three-bedroom in the area, either for sale or for rent, is out of the question.

“We just can’t afford it anymore,” said Ms. Chan, who produces a comedy show called “Bring Your Own Baby” in a neighborhood bookstore. “It’s probably the ’burbs for us,” she added, noting that they are looking at homes in Westchester County.

Some of the most frenetic building in the city is near transit hubs in western Queens and northern Brooklyn, where rezoning in the early- to mid-2000s allowed developers to build taller, denser residential projects. That was the case in Long Island City, Queens, which is expected to have the most new residential units in the city completed in the near future. But for some who already live in the neighborhood, a largely industrial area with pockets of low-slung homes, the new construction has been jarring and sometimes costly.

“When we purchased our home and laid roots here, we never expected to be within a perpetual construction zone,” said Kenny Greenberg, who bought a two-story prewar townhouse with his wife, Diane Hendry, in Long Island City in 1992.

Mr. Greenberg, who owns a neon lighting shop in the neighborhood, said the adjacent construction has caused serious foundational issues and cracks in their home’s facade. After a protracted legal dispute, the developer was ordered to make repairs and pay for some damage, but Mr. Greenberg said that although the condo building under construction was completed around 2009, his repairs have yet to be finished. One reason: Construction has remained so brisk that it has been hard to find a reliable contractor to finish the job.

Moreover, a homeowner cannot prevent a developer next door from accessing the homeowner’s property if necessary for construction, said Jeffrey S. Reich, a partner at Schwartz Sladkus Reich Greenberg Atlas LLP, a law firm that represents real estate clients.

What owners can do is draft a licensing agreement with the builder requiring payment for any damage done to the property, or charge for the loss of use of some parts of the property. “A tremendous amount of these licensing agreements are being requested,” he said, especially in neighborhoods like Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, where construction is widespread.