Photo: Robert Clark

Buying a home in NYC a decade ago while the housing market was still reeling from the bubble burst may have been a solid investment, depending on where you bought.

Unsurprisingly, some parts of Brooklyn, Long Island City (Queens) and Manhattan’s SoHo and Tribeca neighborhoods yielded some of the highest returns citywide, according to a report released this week by the listing site PropertyShark.

The overall median home price in NYC grew from $500,000 in 2008 to $677,000 in 2017. However, when adjusted for inflation, the 2008 price would actually be $586,000 — resulting in a $91,200 increase in price over the decade.

That’s still a decent profit, but far from what investing in the stock market, for example, would’ve gotten you,” says PropertyShark in the digital release.

With a $500,000 investment, it would have been possible to buy 56 shares of each company listed in the Dow Jones Industrial Index. And, if you held onto those shares from 2008 to 2017, the value would’ve been nearly $1.4 million (in 2017) — netting a far greater profit than selling a median priced home.

However, borough-wise and even neighborhood-wise, the gains from housing values were greater.

Over the last decade, the median home price in Brooklyn rose from $440,000 to $635,000 — an increase of 47 percent or $207,000.

However, again adjusting for inflation, the median price in 2008 would be $516,000. This significantly cuts the price growth down to $119,000.

Brooklyn neighborhoods with close proximity to Manhattan recorded even greater growth. Home prices in Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO and Park Slope grew by over $425,000 on average between 2008 and 2017.

“Gentrification played a huge role in shaping and revitalizing some of the borough’s now high-end neighborhoods, for better or worse depending on whom you ask. Priced out of Manhattan, homebuyers crossed the river and developers followed,” writes PropertyShark.

And in Manhattan, the median home price rose 25 percent from $850,000 in 2008 to $1.1 million 2017. But in the Tribeca and SoHo submarkets, the growth in the median price during this period was over $900,000.

For comparison, an $850,000 investment in the Dow Jones in 2008 would’ve been worth $2.4 million in 2017.

Finally, buying in the now white hot Long Island City market a decade ago would’ve netted you a whopping 70 percent profit in 2017.

For the report, PropertyShark examined 1,000 New York City condos and co-ops that were bought in 2008 and subsequently sold in 2017. It then calculated the overall median sale price of those properties and ultimately zoomed into the borough and neighborhood level.

Click here to read the entire report.

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