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The Upper West Side got some love last week when a publication called islands.com included it in its list of America’s “most desirable neighborhoods,” though they could have spent a bit more time on the research.
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The list, which features eleven neighborhoods in total, was developed using information from real estate websites, school reviews, Reddit threads and Nextdoor posts, and social media videos of each location, among other sources, the author says.The travel blog noted how the Upper West Side was named the country’s 8th friendliest neighborhood in another study–whose methodology was quite confusing, though we’ll take the win–and that it’s the place to be for “plenty of top-rated private and charter schools,” making it an ideal place to raise a family (citing an outdated neighborhood guide published by Time Out in 2008).
Islands incorrectly stated* that the Upper West Side is “by far the most expensive neighborhood on [their] list,” going on to write this:
“A single-family home here can cost you up to $30 million, especially properties with views overlooking the Hudson River or Central Park, where the median sale price is a little under $7 million.”
The sentence is a bit confusing, but to be clear: The Upper West Side’s median sale price is well under $2 million ($1.3 million in Q2 of this year, according to PropertyShark); this is also the case on both Central Park West and Riverside Drive. Single-family townhouses have exceeded $30 million in the past, but this is not at all the norm. According to Leslie Garfield’s mid-year townhouse report, the average sale price was $6.9 million from January through June, with the highest price being $14.6 million.
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Islands noted the Upper West Side’s “lots of good food options” and then named Gray’s Papaya and nothing else, though I understand they had other entries to work on. And they did mention the neighborhood’s “brownstone-lined streets,” which is appreciated.Anyway, they were obviously right for including the UWS. They were just a bit off in their reasoning.
Here are the other neighborhoods which made their list:
- Aberdeen in Boynton Beach, Florida
- Beverly Crest in Los Angeles, California *According to realtor.com, this neighborhood’s median sale price is $4.75 million.
- Central Norwich in Norwich, Connecticut
- East Sandwich in Sandwich, Massachusetts
- Highland Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota
- Kingwood in Houston, Texas
- Mt. Lebanon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
- Magnolia Springs, Alabama
- North Central Billings in Billings, Montana
- Woodmont in Milford, Connecticut
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