Williamsburg Hipsters Likely To Flee To Bed-Stuy: Study

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN -- Williamsburg is coming. The neighborhood's residents fleeing the L Train Shutdown are more likely to land in Bed-Stuy and nine other New York City neighborhoods named in a StreetEasy report released Thursday.

"The looming L train shutdown and continued interest from developers, renters and buyers in more affordable neighborhoods shapes the list," StreetEasy analysts wrote in its list of 10 neighborhoods to watch in 2019. "More than half of our neighborhoods to watch are in Brooklyn."

StreetEasy analyzed median asking rent, median sale price, StreetEasy searches and the number of newly construction homes to determine which neighborhoods are most likely to experience a boom next year.

Bed-Stuy came in sixth with a development surge that put almost 600 new units on the market, median rentals at $2,499 and sales prices at $1,250,000, analysts found.

The bump in development may be enough to draw Williamsburg residents away from their waterside homes and toward a neighborhood with lower home prices, analysts said.

"Relative affordability drives more interest," researchers said. "We will be keeping an eye on how all this attention transforms these neighborhoods in 2019." The subway is set to shut down for 15 months beginning April 27.

Several other Brooklyn neighborhoods made the top 10; Downtown Brooklyn came in first, Flatbush second, Crowns Heights was fifth, Cobble Hill seventh and Prospect Heights came in tenth.

You can read the full report on StreetEasy.com.

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock