Everyone knows New York City is expensive. But the list of the most expensive neighborhoods in NYC is always changing — often in surprising ways.

Between 2015 and 2019, sales prices rose in almost all neighborhoods in New York City, with a few exceptions. In a handful of New York’s most expensive neighborhoods — such as Battery Park City, the West Village, Dumbo, the Financial District, and Midtown West — median recorded sales prices actually declined.

Meanwhile, areas like Gramercy Park, the Lower East Side, Ditmas Park, and Roosevelt Island saw their home prices rise far more than elsewhere.

The Most Expensive Neighborhoods in NYC, 2015-2019

To understand how the sales market in New York City neighborhoods changed over the last five years, we created a slopegraph, which is a chart that shows the ranking of neighborhoods in 2015 and 2019 in terms of median recorded sales price. (That’s the most accurate average of what properties actually sold for — not what they were listed for — in each area.)

The lines connecting 2015 to 2019 show the change in rank. If an area went up in rank, the line points upwards, and conversely, if the rank dropped, the line points downwards. The color of the lines indicate whether the price went up or down year over year. A blue line means the price rose, while a red line means it went down in price year over year. The thickness of the lines represents the number of units that were sold. A thicker line means more units sold.

Prices Doubled in Cobble Hill and Lower East Side, Pushing Them Up the Ranks

Ranked at number 12 in 2015, Cobble Hill rose to become the fourth-most expensive neighborhood in NYC in 2019, as its median recorded sales price nearly doubled from $1.33 million to $2.55 million.

Homes in Cobble Hill tend to spend a short time on the market and continue to be an attractive option for high-budget buyers seeking an elegant neighborhood with convenient transportation.