Manhattan – Brooklyn – Queens. The search for affordability has been forcing many NYC home buyers to follow this path in order to find a home. As prices are sky rocketing in Manhattan and more than half of Brooklyn, Queens is now stepping into the limelight as the most desirable borough where one can still find an affordable home.

And, indeed, with a median home price in Queens of $362,000, as compared to $585,000 in Brooklyn*, more and more middle class home buyers are starting to take an interest in several of Queens’ neighborhoods. This is despite the fact that even the real estate market in Queens is seeing prices go up this year, with the median home price being back to the value registered in 2007:

*For calculating the median home sale price, only the transactions closed in the first 10 months of each year were taken into account.

Queens is attracting more luxury buyers

But it seems that Queens is attracting not only buyers interested in housing affordability, but luxury home buyers as well. In fact, in the first 10 months of this year the number of luxury transactions — homes with price tags over $1 million — reached 287, a record-high number*.

*For calculating the number of luxury sales, only the transactions closed in the first 10 months of each year were taken into account.

The biggest number of luxury sales was registered in Hunters Point, where 48 properties with prices starting at $1 million traded hands since the beginning of this year. Hunters Point has been under a lot of attention lately as it’s the Queens neighborhood which registered the most impressive jump in median home sale price over the last 10 years: from $399 to a staggering $924, a 132% increase.

Other areas which have attracted more luxury home buyers were: Forest Hills (33 luxury home sales), Forest Hills Gardens (22 luxury home sales), Bayside (19 luxury home sales), and Whitestone (16 luxury home sales). Most of the buyers, according to an article in the New York Daily News, come from China, Greece, Brazil, India or even Tibet and Nepal.

$1 million and over properties in Queens

Eye candy or not? Our sister company, Point2 Homes has helped us select a few luxury properties that are currently listed in Queens:

Asking price: $3,100,000

Neighborhood: Forest Hills

Square footage: 4,406

Year built: 1925

Asking price: $1,750,000

Neighborhood: Whitestone

Square footage: 3,982

Year built: 2010

Asking price: $1,368,000

Neighborhood: Rego Park

Square footage: 2,258

Year built: 1950