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Cheapest One Bedroom in TriBeCa is More than $1 Million

By Irene Plagianos | December 13, 2016 3:57pm
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The "most affordable" apartments in TriBeCa are twice as pricey as those in nearby Battery Park City.
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LOWER MANHATTAN — What a difference a few blocks make.

The 10 "most affordable" market-rate apartments for sale last month in TriBeCa all cost between $1,095,000 and $1,795,000, according to research from real estate analytics site NeighborhoodX. In comparison, in nearby Battery Park City and the Financial District, the neighborhoods' least expensive apartments all fell below the $1 million mark.

Another way of looking at it — TriBeCa's cheapest apartment for sale is twice as expensive as Battery Park City's least expensive listing ($499,000).

TriBeCa is regularly ranked as one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city — and even in the country — to buy property, and a big part of the reason is simply that "people are willing to pay a premium to live in TriBeCa," said Constantine Valhouli, founder of NeighborhoodX.

The neighborhood's distinct historic architecture, cobblestone streets and loft apartments have long made it a favorite of celebrities and the ultra wealthy. 

Indeed, the "affordable" apartments for sale in TriBeCa last month were all larger than the spaces available in Battery Park City — a neighborhood made solely out of high-density condo buildings — and the Financial District, which has numerous former office buildings converted into apartments.

Nearly all the "cheap" apartments of Battery Park City, for example, were smaller than 700 feet, whereas in TriBeCa, the 10 least expensive apartments were larger than 700 square feet.

"It's just really tough to find that 450-square-foot one-bedroom in TriBeCa, that type of inventory just isn't there," Valhouli said. (It should be noted that NeighborhoodX doesn't include studio apartments in their analysis, because those apartments tend to be less viable as long-term residences.)

But don't let the larger sizes of TriBeCa's apartment distract from its exorbitant prices. When you compare price-per-square foot of affordable apartments, you see that TriBeCa still far outpaces its neighbors, Valhouli said. So, for example, in TriBeCa, the price-per-square foot is in a range of $1,413 to $2,094. In the Financial District, however, the price-per-square foot range is $903 to $1,450, and in Battery Park City, it's $860 to $1,295.  

And TriBeCa isn't just the most expensive area among its Lower Manhattan neighbors — it also outpaces the dozens of neighborhoods across the city that NeighborhoodX similarly analyzed over the past couple of months — that includes Greenwich Village, the East Village and Brooklyn Heights.

So far, Valhouli said, TriBeCa is the only neighborhood the site has looked at where all its cheapest apartments cost more than $1 million.

"These are by far the highest price 10 most affordable properties that we've analyzed, up to this point,' Valhouli said.