QUEENS — Asking prices for homes in the coveted Forest Hills Gardens rocketed up by about half a million dollars in just 12 months, a broker specializing in the area said.
According to Susanna Hof, the owner and a broker at Terrace Sotheby’s International Realty which focuses primarily on Forest Hills Gardens — a private community known for its mansion-like houses, low crime and leafy streets — where she says prices have been shooting up.
“The market is so hot,” Hof said.
“We are getting many listings. Our inventory has doubled since November.”
While prices always depend on the condition and size of property, “for a nice sized detached house in the Gardens you have to pay over $2 million," Hof said.
Currently, a growing number of Forest Hills Gardens home owners looking to sell their property are asking for $3 to $4 million, she said. A colonial home at 65 Tennis Pl., featuring seven bedrooms, four full bathrooms and a living room with a fireplace, is currently on sale for $4.5 million.
In November 2013, a single-family home which features seven bedrooms and a backyard patio at 72 Tennis Pl. sold for $4.3 million and last April a house at 34 Greenway South sold for $3 million.
While there are still a number of cheaper homes on the market, Hof said that "anything under 1.8 million was selling really fast and often had multiple buyers."
Hof said that the prices have been surging as Queens becomes more popular among home seekers.
“I think Queens has finally become acceptable,” she said.
“People are beginning to look at Queens because [while] the prices in Brooklyn and Manhattan have gotten high, Queens is still an option.”
She said that the Forest Hills Gardens is also sought-after because of its proximity to several major highways, as well as nearby subway and LIRR stations.
Last week, a report by real estate website StreetEasy named Groton Street in Forest Hills Gardens the most expensive block in Queens.
According to StreetEasy, which based the report on its own listings and took into account only those blocks which had at least 10 sales in the past 10 years, Groton Street between 70th and 72nd avenues is the most expensive stretch in the borough.
The median sales price there is $1.78 million.
