34,000 People Fled The Upper East Side In 2020: Data

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — As the pandemic swept New York last year, residents fled the Upper East Side at some of the city's highest rates, 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 Upper East Side's five ZIP codes, more than 34,600 people moved out in 2020, while 22,100 moved in — a net loss of about 12,500 residents. That's a far greater exodus than the previous year, when the neighborhood had a net loss of about 3,700 people.

Here is the 2020 move-out data for each Upper East Side ZIP code:

• 10021: 4,512 move-ins, 6,885 move-outs — net loss of 2,373 residents, or 40 per 1,000 people
• 10028: 5,047 move-ins, 8,107 move-outs — net loss of 3,060 residents, or 37 per 1,000 people
• 10065: 3,387 move-ins, 5,293 move-outs — net loss of 1,906 residents, or 38 per 1,000 people
• 10075: 2,477 move-ins, 3,993 move-outs — net loss of 1,516 residents, or 42 per 1,000 people
• 10128: 6,716 move-ins, 10,375 move-outs — net loss of 3,659 residents, or 48 per 1,000 people

The 10128 ZIP code, which spans between East 87th and 97th streets, had the most net move-outs of any part of Upper East Side, with 3,659 — the seventh-most in the state.

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.

Manhattan rent prices, which fell precipitously during the pandemic exodus, have shown signs of rebounding in recent months, suggesting that demand for urban living has begun to rise again.