Forest hills garden, queens... Slowdown?

I think you idealize Forest Hills/Kew Gardens too much (or maybe you've been speaking to someone who used to be in the area 30 years ago?). Sure, there are desirable areas within Forest Hills/Kew Gardens, but the area is "VERY QUEENS," with project-looking coops, ill-mannered individuals, and less-than-attractive commercial establishments. The streets are just filthy there.

There are many lower- to middle-class Russians and Jews, and they are definitely NOT diplomats or Wall Street-types.

The houses in some areas there are expensive because of their size (I think they started the trend whereby people build houses that are too big and tacky for the lot size), but, again, the area is what it used to be 30 years ago. Most wealthy families have moved to School District 26, Bayside, from what I hear, or to Great Neck, Long Island.

I have heard from a realtor friend of mine that many of the homeowners there are in small business and have no/bad credit. So, many are apparently facing foreclosure. Have you checked? From what I hear, there are streets where you see every other house displaying "for sale" signs.

There is a big difference between Forest Hills and Forest Hills Gardens. The Gardens are a pretty exclusive area with very pricey tudor style private homes, a few top notch coops in an area surrounded by Forest Park with cobblestone streets and almost no commercial establishments.

Not sure about prices but I never see many for sale signs [grandparents live there].

Forest Hills Gardens is an original English Village, the deed restrictions do not allow any exterior changes to the wonderfull and stately dwellings. The gardens maybe be the best neighborhood in the entire city, easy access into midtown, via the IND or the LIRR station (Teddy Roosevelt gave his all american speech there), and there is also express bus service. Public schools are a mixed bag, but the Kew-Forest private school is reported to be outstanding. The main brokers in the area are Terrace Realty, Sarah Jones Real Estate, Madeline Realty

Interestingly enough, have not seen much price reductions in FHG. Seller "superiority" denial complex?

FWIW, saw this today in the post.

Agree with the others, nyc212 does not know about FHG.

FOREST HILLS GARDEN $1,700,000

7 Greenway North

Prewar five-bedroom, five-bath center-hall Colonial, 3,066 square feet, with granite kitchen, dining room, sunroom, high ceilings, marble and mahogany floors, steam room and laundry room. Taxes $6,398. Asking price $1,899,000, on market seven months. Broker: Terrace Realty

http://www.nypost.com/seven/03262009/realestate/just_sold__161307.htm

i am not a fan of the area. the wall street people i know living there are back office, normal salary types, not high fliers.

I kept saying don't respond, don't respond but I just have to.

nyc212: considering your name and your post I have to assume you take great pride in not being from or being associated with Queens, so I always have to scratch my head when people like you write things such as the above as if you are the authority.

First off you aren't entirely wrong about the new makeup of the nabe, there are lot's of people there now my parents would prefer not to go grocery shopping with, but there are still plenty of old schoolers living there. Things have changed and yes there is a healthy number of annoying Russian mob or wannabe Russian mob types living there now. Ill-mannered is fair and let's leave it at that.

My problem with your post is the "project-like" talk and the "very Queens" comment, that just doesn't come off well.

The streets are actually not dirty, lot's of things I can say about the nabe being boring or far from the action but so far as dirty, no. It's one of the cleaner places in Queens. I've lived in Astoria and can tell you the streets there were much dirtier and don't get me started on other hoods (mainly those serviced by the 7 train).

I can also agree that in the past maybe ten years or so the new population discussed above started to build horrific and gaudy houses with illegal funds in some parts of the hood. Whether or not they are in foreclosure now I dunno as like I said, I'm not sure the money came from jobs that could have been lost to begin with, but I certainly don't know of rampant foreclosure in the area.

Forest Hills Gardens is another story entirely and as far as I know it was unaffected for the most part by the influx mentioned above and by what's happening now. I'm sure prices have gone down some but certainly no bloodletting. Kew Gardens is another nabe entirely.

FHG was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted (of Central Park fame) and really is one of the most beautiful places in NYC. My ex's father, a big-time surgeon, lives in one of those huge gorgeous Tudors. You can Google Forest Hill Gardens Real Estate and find several sites with listings, but nothing I saw showed price movements. Gotta figure they'll drop like everything else though. You certainly get a lot more out there for $2M than you do in Manhattan!

Actually, it was his son, FLO Jr. It's a 142-acre private community that is within, and has absolutely nothing to do with, Forest Hills. Its restrictive covenants forbid sales to Jews, blacks and the lower- and lower-middle classes. The US Tennis Open used to be played there, on grass courts.

It's fancy.

alanhart, yep, except the ban on Jewish people was def lifted a while ago. So far as restricting lower income people well, real estate prices did that on their own.

And as my dad tells the story part of the reason the US Open had to move was because of how restrictive the West Side Tennis Club was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forest_Hills_Gardens,_Queens

I believe the covenants were merely invalidated by US Supreme Court decision, which means (literally) they still exist for anything that hasn't sold since then. So "forbid" . . . that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

And I'm not sure lower-income people were banned -- just the lower- and lower-middle classes. There's a difference.

Huh?

Anyway I just assume that when people ask questions about a neighborhood on the boards as opposed to just looking it up on Wikipedia (which is probably easier to do) it's because they want real life answers and experiences.

"You certainly get a lot more out there for $2M than you do in Manhattan! "

Yeah, you get a house attached to another one. Go ten minutes west and you get 3x the property for the money.

10022: Do you have any idea what you're talking about? FHG is a closed park-like neighborhood filled mostly with HUGE elegant stand-alone English Tudor style homes. This is NOT Forest Hills!!!! Get a clue. Take the train out, enter FH GARDENS and walk around the neighborhood!

Here is a TYPICAL house in FHG:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Forest_Hills_Gardens,_Queens,_NY.jpg

Oh dear, despite a few posters carefully correcting nyc212's mistake of confusing FHG for FH, nyc10022 does the same as nyc212 and makes the very same mistake.