Vinegar Hill Is the First Brooklyn Neighborhood to List in City’s Top Three Most Expensive

Vinegar Hill has hit number three in the list of New York City’s most expensive neighborhoods, spurred by sales in one luxury development on Water Street.

Although Vinegar Hill recorded only five sales in the first quarter of 2023, the median price of the sales at $2.6 million was enough to see it ascend the list of the city’s 50 priciest neighborhoods, released by PropertyShark.

It was the second time in a row Vinegar Hill took the top spot in the borough, but the first time a Brooklyn neighborhood made the top three citywide.

The report, released Tuesday, notes that the record breaking median was “heavily influenced by three sales at 288 Water Street — an eight-unit, ultra-boutique condominium project with high-end amenities.”

The five-story building was developed by EDRE and includes a Japanese Zen garden as well as private outdoor space for each apartment.

Sales in the neighborhood typically fluctuate from quarter to quarter, the report notes. However, PropertyShark doesn’t have the data on sales in Vinegar Hill during the same period last year, likely because the neighborhood did not meet the five closings threshold needed to accurately measure the data.

No strangers to the list, Dumbo and Carroll Gardens also made the top 10, at 8 and 9 respectively, and Manhattan neighborhoods rounded out the seven remaining spots. The most expensive neighborhood citywide is Hudson Yards, which recorded a median sales price of $5.729 million in the first quarter.

Prospect Lefferts Gardens topped the list with the highest growth in sales of the 50 neighborhoods, with an annual increase of 100 percent, and saw the third largest price hike of 51 percent compared with last year.

Cobble Hill, on the other hand, recorded the sharpest drop in prices amongst the most expensive neighborhoods citywide during the quarter, the report said, falling 58 percent year-on-year to $1.128 million. Sales in the neighborhood also decreased 71 percent compared with last year, the second largest drop of the city’s 50 most expensive neighborhoods.

A drop in sales was a trend felt across the city, and most acutely so in Brooklyn. The borough experienced the sharpest sales decline of all five boroughs — down 42 percent compared with last year. Citywide, sales were down 35 percent to $695,000. Prices borough-wide also saw a dip, but much more slight than in sales, down 5 percent on last year.

“With borough-wide metrics trending down for the fourth consecutive quarter — and at increasingly sharp rates — the NYC real estate market is expected to stall in the near future,” the report states.

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