Luxury housing and gentrification in New York City, 2010-2019

In recent years, New York City has experienced a boom in high end “luxury” construction. This paper maps the spatial expansion of the luxury housing market, using a GIS analysis of over 50,000 high-end real estate sales. It analyzes how the building boom contributed to super-gentrification, the further upgrading of already gentrified neighborhoods. The luxury housing market grew 102% during the 2010s, following two spatial patterns: an intensification of luxury development in already-affluent neighborhoods (especially on the west side of Manhattan) and an expansion into more recently gentrified neighborhoods (especially in northern and central Brooklyn). The luxury market is concentrated in areas that have 81% higher incomes and 31% more white residents that the rest of the city, though new luxury construction occurred in areas with a more diverse racial and class mix. While luxury development has expanded into marginally less-elite neighborhoods, it typically occurs in already gentrified places.