Labor Day and the traditional end of summer are near, which is a bittersweet thing, but September in the city can be a glorious time, too. The weather mellows out, the tourists go home and the city resumes to normal after the summer haze of weddings and weekends away. What better way to celebrate the change in seasons than with an epic Labor Day party? Grab some friends, some burgers and charcoals, light up the grill and you’re ready to go! Oh wait. Who has a place with private outdoor space?
Outdoor space – preferably private outdoor space – is key to any successful Labor Day party, but just where are your best bets for landing a place with your very own patch of patio?
StreetEasy crunched the numbers by looking at for-sale properties listed since Jan. 1, 2016 that offered either a patio, terrace, balcony or garden. We excluded listings with rooftops since chances are your rooftop outdoor space will be shared — especially in condo-dense neighborhoods like FiDi and Downtown Brooklyn. To make the list of best bets, the neighborhoods had to have more than a 60 percent share of sales listings with any one of the aforementioned outdoor space options.
We found that the neighborhoods with the most private outdoor space ranged across the boroughs, from traditionally expensive neighborhoods like West Chelsea and Fort Greene to under-the-radar enclaves offering good value and good vibes like Clinton Hill, Jackson Heights and East Harlem.
One major takeaway from the analysis is that you’ll have better luck finding a place in the outer-boroughs with outdoor space than you will in Manhattan. Of the 12 neighborhoods with more than 60 percent share of listings with private outdoor space, only two were in Manhattan – East Harlem and West Chelsea. This may be a blessing in disguise. Having your hopes set on both a Manhattan address and one with private outdoor space usually means you’ll be shelling out several million.
A treetop terrace is nice
Many of the neighborhoods on the list, however, were pricey even by outer-borough standards. Looking at this list, the majority of the neighborhoods have median sales prices over those of their respective boroughs. Take Carroll Gardens, for example, which is the No. 1 neighborhood on the list with an 82 percent share of properties with private outdoor space. With a median sales price of $1.295M, Carroll Gardens is far more expensive than Brooklyn ($593K) and even more expensive than Manhattan ($1.054M). Hunters Point, which clocked in at No. 2 on the list with an 80 percent share of listings with private outdoor space, tells a similar story. There you’ll find a median sales price of $900K, which is far above that of Queens ($375K).
Crown Heights offers some great outdoor space and gardens
There were, however, a handful of neighborhoods that hit the sweet spot, offering high percentages of properties with private outdoor space AND median sales prices under that of their respective boroughs. These include:
- East Harlem, which, with a median sales price of $629K, is 33 percent less expensive than the borough at large.
- Jackson Heights in Queens also offers a best bet for bargain hunters hoping for some outdoor space. Sixty-six percent of the listings there offer private outdoor space and the median sales price is $322.5K — 14 percent lower than the borough-wide median.
- Fort Greene, famous for its shady blocks and quintessentially Brooklyn back gardens, also offers some great value for buyers hunting for private outdoor space. There you’ll find 63 percent of listings with either a garden, patio, terrace or balcony and median sales price of $557,733, which is 6 percent lower than the borough at large.
Check out the list for 2016’s best bets for landing a place with private outdoor space. You might have to give up your Manhattan address and pay a little more than the borough-wide median, but if your heart is set on your very own backyard (or balcony), you’ll have good luck in the neighborhoods listed above!
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