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Astoria Is the Only Queens Neighborhood To Make 'Gentrifying' List

 A rendering of the retail project planned for 34-30 Steinway St. in Astoria.
A rendering of the retail project planned for 34-30 Steinway St. in Astoria.
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Winick Realty Group

QUEENS — Astoria is officially gentrifying.

The neighborhood is among 15 in the city to get the classification in a report released by NYU's Furman Center Monday. It's the only area in Queens to get the label.

The report defined gentrifying areas as formerly low-income neighborhoods that saw a greater growth in rent than other areas since 1990, with Astoria's average rent jumping 26.7 percent between then and 2014.

It's ranked 11th out of the 15 neighborhoods on the list. By comparison, Williamsburg and Greenpoint, which topped the list, saw a nearly 80 percent jump in average rent.

Sunnyside and Woodside — defined in the report as Queens Community District 2, which also includes Long Island City — is classified as "higher income" in the report, meaning it was not considered a low-income area in 1990. 

Like the other gentrifying neighborhoods in the report, Astoria had an increase in its number of "non-family" households over the last 20 years, making up 40.9 percent of its population in 2000 compared to 48.5 percent in 2014.

The number of college graduates in the neighborhood also grew by nearly 16 percentage points during that time, with more than 40 percent of residents holding degrees in 2014, the report found.