Buyers make a beeline for Manhattan’s Yorkville

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From Midtown to Morningside Heights, middle-class New Yorkers have long been priced out of even the most “affordable” central Manhattan neighbourhoods. But then there’s Yorkville — a compact pocket of the Upper East Side whose reputation for relative affordability and excellent state schools has made it a favourite of working families.

Stretching from Third Avenue to the East River — East 79th to East 96th Streets — Yorkville is park-rich, family-friendly and almost entirely tourist free. Although not under the radar, the area is easy for visitors to overlook, with little more than Gracie Mansion — mayor Eric Adams’ official residence within the 15-acre Carl Schurz Park — as a landmark. 

Still, with its easy access to the FDR freeway along the East River and the seven-year-old addition to the Second Avenue Q subway line, Yorkville, says Larry Gerowitz, an attorney who has lived in the neighbourhood for more than two decades, “is like a gateway to everything that is great about New York”.

Yorkville may take its name from New York City and State. But the neighbourhood was traditionally the domain of German and central European immigrants whose namesake eateries (Heidelberg Restaurant, Budapest Café) and churches still dot First and Second Avenues, Yorkville’s main thoroughfares, along with its tree-lined side streets. This slightly old-world vibe coupled with Yorkville’s trove of traditional tenement-style walk-ups has resulted in an atmosphere — and prices — that are rare in Manhattan. Both factors also help explain its long-term appeal to New York’s middle class. 

“Yorkville has long been considered an Upper East Side neighbourhood . . . that’s more affordable than locations directly south of it” in other parts of the Upper East Side, says Jonathan Miller of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel. “But that is beginning to change.” Indeed, while Yorkville remains lower priced than much of Manhattan, those prices are rising at a far faster rate than the rest of the island. Yorkville’s bargain status is clearly eroding.

According to data from Miller Samuel, Yorkville’s median selling price in the fourth quarter of 2023 was $985,000, up nearly 18 per cent year-on-year. That’s a far steeper rise than the 5.1 per cent increase Manhattan-wide, though the median price for the whole island, at $1.156mn, is still significantly higher than that of Yorkville.

Yorkville’s rental rise is even steeper, with rental prices up 15.7 per cent last year — and a sizeable 47.4 per cent over the past three years, compared with 34.2 per cent for all of Manhattan. Meanwhile, vacancy rates in New York rentals are at a scant 1.4 per cent, their lowest level in 50 years, according to a recent Housing and Vacancy Survey. 

Yorkville’s recent price increases reflect both its own unique circumstances as well as the core fundamentals impacting Manhattan as a whole. During the pandemic there was a steep rise in Yorkville sales, up from 693 in 2019 to 1,099 in 2021, before cooling substantially to 812 in 2022 and 594 last year, according to property analytics company UrbanDigs. Again, that was far above the Manhattan average as New York began to recover from its early Covid sales crash in 2020.

New York is always in a sense of constant flux. And Yorkville is the epitome of this

Then there’s that Q line extension, whose three stations and 1.8 miles of track cost nearly $4.5bn to build and provided Yorkville with a direct connection to Midtown and Wall Street. 

The Q “brought a flurry of luxury development to the neighbourhood”, says Miller. At the super-prime level, projects such as 20 East End Avenue and 40 East End Avenue marked the entry of “starchitects” — Robert AM Stern and Deborah Berke, respectively — to a neighbourhood traditionally not known for brand-name glamour. 

More recently, developments such as The Harper, by ODA architects, are continuing this trend towards the types of luxury condos now standard from the West Village to West Harlem. Clad in limestone, the project on East 86th Street — Yorkville’s midpoint and main shopping corridor — includes 63 two to four-bedroom condominiums priced from just over $2mn for the smaller units to nearly $6mn for the largest. 

According to Mike Fabbri of The Agency, a real estate broker, move-in-ready, amenity-filled developments such as The Harper are helping to lure younger buyers to Yorkville, “particularly those who grew up on the Upper East Side, moved downtown and are migrating back uptown”, he says.

The Harper is also helping to keep long-term Yorkville residents like Gerowitz from looking elsewhere in Manhattan in order to “trade up” to higher-end homes. With a limited supply of luxury-level apartments, “we thought hard about leaving Yorkville”, Gerowitz says. Instead he and his wife bought a three-bedroom apartment in The Harper with a terrace. Gerowitz said The Harper’s Art Deco-inspired facade — and price (roughly $2,000 per sq ft) — were key selling points. 

According to Fabbri, beyond its new condo developments and relative affordability, Yorkville’s new transport links have also been “crucial” in attracting new residents as well as retaining veterans like the Gerowitzes. That accessibility is due to improve further over the next decade with the second phase of the Second Avenue subway project

The next extension will reuse existing tunnels dating back to the 1970s, with the aim of reducing both costs and construction time. The subway’s infrastructure upcycling reflects the way in which “New York is always in a state of constant flux”, says Gerowitz. “And Yorkville is the epitome of this.”

On the market

East 95th Street, $650,000

A one-bedroom, one-bathroom, 665 sq ft condo in a red-brick building near the 96th Street Q train station and the northernmost edge of Yorkville. The building has a lift, courtyard, gym and laundry room. For sale with Compass.

East 87th Street, $2.695mn

A four-bedroom, three-bathroom apartment with a library, private laundry room and terrace in a postwar co-op building close to 86th Street, Yorkville’s main commercial corridor. Listed with Corcoran.

East 86th Street, $5.975mn

A 2,650 sq ft condominium with four bedrooms and four bathrooms at The Harper. The unit features white oak herringbone floors and a balcony, while the building includes a children’s playroom and fitness centre. Available through Core.

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