Home Prices Skyrocket Near These Subway Stations, Study Shows

NEW YORK — Housing prices near New York City subway stops are just as inconsistent as the trains themselves, a new study shows.

Home buyers must pay over 200 percent more to be close to some stations, but deep discounts are available near others, according to a PropertyShark report released Tuesday.

Homes sold within a quarter-mile of 53 percent of the 431 stations analyzed by the real-estate website were more expensive than their respective neighborhoods overall.

The Fifth Avenue-59th Street stop in Lenox Hill saw the biggest price swing — homes nearby had a median sale price of more than $4.63 million, almost four times the neighborhood's median of $1.21 million, the report shows.

Four of the five subway stops commanding the biggest premiums are in Manhattan, according to PropertyShark. The Bronx's Castle Hill Avenue station ranked second with a 267 percent price increase, while the Parsons Boulevard stop in Briarwood, Queens took the No. 6 spot.

But New Yorkers can find deals near other stations such as Fordham Road in The Bronx's University Heights neighborhood, the report shows. The median sale price of $75,000 near that stop is 82 percent lower than the neighborhood as a whole, the biggest discount on the list, according to PropertyShark.

Prices fall 81 percent near Downtown Brooklyn's York Street stop on the F line, while the Jamaica-179th Street station in Jamaica Estates offers a discount of 75 percent, the report shows.

The influence of proximity to subway stations on housing prices varies by borough, PropertyShark said. Homes near stops in Brooklyn and Staten Island are 11 and 9 percent more expensive than the borough's median, respectively, while prices are 8 percent lower near stations in Queens and roughly even in Manhattan and The Bronx, according to the report.

"It should also be noted that the neighborhood composition within the radius of the subways and the neighborhoods varies," PropertyShark says. "Condos and single-family homes can be over-represented in one and under-represented in another."

PropertyShark's analysis is based on sales data from January 2014 to June 2019 for single- and multifamily homes, co-op units, condos, townhouses and rowhouses.

Here are the five subway stations where home prices increase the most compared to the neighborhood median, according to PropertyShark. Read the full report here.

1. Fifth Avenue-59th Street, Lenox Hill — 283 percent increase (median sale price: $4,636,288)
2. Castle Hill Avenue, Parkchester — 267 percent increase (median sale price: $477,500)
3. Fifth Avenue-53rd Street, Central Midtown — 255 percent increase (median sale price: $4,582,125)
4. 59th Street-Columbus Circle, Theater District/Times Square — 252 percent increase (median sale price: $4,050,000)
5. Chambers Street/Park Place/World Trade Center, Financial District — 248 percent increase (median sale price: $3,830,000)