Most expensive homes sold in Queens are on the waterfront

Image source: NYDN – the most expensive house in Queens, located in Neponsit, was damaged by Hurricane Sandy and is uninhabitable

The NY Daily News reports that the most expensive real estate sold in Queens this year is on the waterfront, according to survey results by Point2Homes, an online residential real estate listing company. In particular, the neighborhoods of LIC, Malba, Whitestone, and the Rockaways have had the highest priced properties. If you remember from this past summer, the most expensive sale made in the history of Queens was for a home in Neponsit, on the Rockaway peninsula. It was damaged during Hurricane Sandy, and is currently uninhabitable.

And on the subject of Hurricane Sandy, it is not surprising to hear that the storm has negatively affected property values in the Rockaways. Real estate broker Robin Shapiro, who does a lot of her work in the Rockaways, says right now there is a lot of damage to many of the homes, some totally destroyed. Robert Tracey, of Tracey Real Estate, says that housing prices have dropped in the area 20% to 30% since the storm.

A number of folks in the local real estate industry believe that waterfront property prices will bounce back and that people will still want to live there, despite the perceived risk so soon after the storm. In the words of Modern Spaces’ Eric Benaim, “People want to live on the waterfront.” Real estate appraiser Jonathan Miller says “The aftermath of the storm hasn’t changed people’s love for being on the water and having the view.” Comparisons have been made to downtown Manhattan just after 9/11. Rosemary Scanlon, dean of New York University’s Schack Institute of Real Estate, made just that comparison, and is convinced the market for waterfront property will rebound.

After the Neponsit home sale, a house in Malba was the second highest sale in Queens, at $3.7 million. Malba is an affluent neighborhood between College Point and Whitestone (its name is an acronym made from the first letters of the names Maycock, Alling, Lewis, Bishop, and Avis, who were the five founders of the Malba Land Company).

So why are these properties so expensive? Well, there are the aforementioned views, which can be amazing. Also, according to David Legaz, a real estate agent with Keller Williams Realty Landmark, “You have a combination of mostly waterfront homes on large properties. Generally, they have a movie theater, a sauna, a wine cellar, Jacuzzis and a steam room.” Nice.

Priciest Queens home is in storm-battered Rockaways [NYDN]
Hurricane Sandy’s effects on waterfront development and sales [QNYC]
LIC for Brooklynites – where to live in Hunters Point, Queens Plaza, Court Square, and Dutch Kills [QNYC]