Nearly 37,000 People Fled The Bed-Stuy Area In 2020, Study Finds

BED-STUY, BROOKLYN — As the pandemic swept New York last year, residents fled Brooklyn in droves, including in Bed-Stuy, according to a new study by the global real estate firm CBRE.

The study looked at 29 million change-of-address requests filed with the U.S. Postal Service last year, providing insight into which ZIP codes saw the most departures — and where residents went.

New York City, which was already shrinking before the pandemic, had the second-most net move-outs of any metro in the country in 2020, trailing only San Francisco, the study found. Meanwhile, Sun Belt cities like Austin and Charlotte saw population gains.

Within the city, dense, urbanized neighborhoods like Midtown, Lower Manhattan and Northern Brooklyn lost the most residents.

Across the five ZIP codes that include a part of Bed-Stuy, nearly 37,000 people moved out in 2020, while about 26,000 moved in, a net loss of about 11,000 residents.

The number is less than some Manhattan neighborhoods that saw the biggest exoduses, like the Upper East Side's net loss of 12,500 residents.

Nevertheless, it is a huge jump for the Bed-Stuy area from previous years. In 2019, the net loss of residents for the five ZIP codes was only about 3,900, according to the study.

Here is the 2020 move-out data for Park Slope ZIP codes:

• 11216: 5,834 move-ins, 8,275 move-outs — net loss of 2,441, or 41 per 1,000 residents
• 11205: 3,141 move-ins, 4,142 move-outs — net loss of 1,001, or 21 per 1,000 residents
• 11206: 5,735 move-ins, 8,363 move-outs — net loss 2,628, or 29 per 1,000 residents
• 11221: 7,008 move-ins, 10,413 move-outs — net loss of 3,405, or 39 per 1,000 residents
• 11233: 4,250 move-ins, 5,743 move-outs — net loss of 1,493, or 20 per 1,000 residents

The 11216 ZIP code, which covers a western portion of the neighborhood and part of Crown Heights, had one of the highest rates of net loss per 1,000 people in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Heights' 11201 ZIP code saw the highest in the borough, with 50 per 1,000 people leaving in 2020.

Most people who moved last year went only a short distance, often to a nearby county, the researchers found. Many of them were affluent young adults who had no children and were able to work remotely.

"The outflow from urban areas likely will subside as normal life resumes and lower rents lure back some who had moved out," they wrote.

Rent and housing prices in Brooklyn have dropped at slower rates than parts of New York City, partly because of Manhattanites moving into the outer boroughs. Still, rent and homes are cheaper in 2021 than they were this time last year.