Forest Hills Rents Drop As Rents Rise In Elmhurst, Corona: Study

FOREST HILLS, QUEENS — Rents in New York City hit record lows during the first quarter of 2021, according to a new study, and while rents dropped in Forest Hills they rose in other nearby central Queens neighborhoods, highlighting disparities in the borough.

The report, released by StreetEasy last Friday found that NYC rents, which have been precipitously dropping throughout the pandemic, hit record lows across the city during the past few months, including in Queens where rents dropped below $2,000 for the first time in eight years.

According to the study's data, the rents in Forest Hills dropped by 7.1 percent year-over-year. Rents in other nearby primarily white, wealthy neighborhoods, like Rego Park and Middle Village, also dropped by 6.3 percent and 13 percent, respectively.

These drops are almost on-par with increases in rents in nearby neighborhoods hard-hit by the pandemic, including East Elmhurst and North Corona, where rents grew by 4.5 percent and 16.7 percent, respectively.

The rise in North Corona is the largest percentage point increase in rent across the entirety of NYC, according to the study.

Matthew Murphy, Executive Director of the NYU Furman Center attributes this trend — which has persisted in Queens, and the city at large amid the pandemic — to differences in the opportunity for mobility that high- and low-income New Yorkers have.

He explained in a written statement to Patch that during the past year many "renter households with the resources relocated" compared to lower-income households who weren't able to move.

Those lower-income households then found themselves in neighborhoods where "listed rents have increased" because "demand has remained high," he explained, adding that "given this segmentation, low-income households are not seeing the benefit of rent decreases."

And, it's not just central Queens where this segmented rent pattern has happened: Other lower-income areas of Queens predominantly populated by people of color, like Hollis, saw rent increases by as much as 13.4 percent — or no rent changes at all, in the case of Rosedale, St. Albans, and South Jamaica — whereas rents fell precipitously in high-income neighborhoods like Astoria and Long Island City.

Although StreetEasy economists speculate in the study that the city's rent decreases won't last forever, for Dr. Tricarico the pattern of segmented rent is a trend that will persist since "status has implications for mobility."

"The elite residents of the city have choices that lower income, minority New Yorkers don't have," he said.

Read the full StreetEasy report here.