Photo: QueensPost
Dec. 3, 2013 By Christian Murray
With an influx of trendy restaurants, bars and other amenities—Sunnyside is now a ‘hipster [real estate] market’ that is a particularly lucrative for residential landlords, according to real estate research firm RealtyTrac.
Sunnyside landlords, according to the research firm, can extract the highest yields from their property among all the ‘hipster markets’ in New York City.
RealtyTrac produced a list of so-called “hipster neighborhoods” throughout the nation — and determined Sunnyside’s 11104 ZIP code generated the 12th highest rental yield nationwide, as well as the highest in the city. Investors generally earn a yield of 5.90%.
Photo: QueensPost
While RealtyTrac said the precise definition of hipsters is elusive —it noted that it tends to be a place with a high number of trendy residents in their 20s and 30s.
The research firm noted that a neighborhood branded as hipster is likely to see property values and rental rates rise while vacancies and foreclosures decline.
RealtyTrac findings were based on zip codes with a disproportionately large population in the prime hipster age range — between 25 and 34—and where at least 20% of the population either walked to work or used public transportation.
Photo: QueensPost
Featured Events
74 Comments
Born and resided in Sunnyside until 1984 when my immigrant Irish parents decided the area was on the downswing compared to the 60s so we left to Whitestone. I had an amazing childhood in Whitestone but always felt part of me was still back in Sunnyside playing roller hockey with tons of other local kids whose parents also came to the area to better their chances of survival – not a playcation for trustfund kids priced out of richer kids in Manhattan. What’s happening to Sunnyside is disgusting. The ironic part is these kids come from parts of the country and families that were pure socio-economic racists and looked down upon places like Sunnyside, full of blue collar ethnics. Karma is going to be a bitch, you bitches.
Not only are rents going up, there are fewer apartments available as rentals. When I bought my house in 1975, people were converting one-family houses to two-family houses. Now the reverse is true–two- and three-family houses are being converted to single-family homes. Add to that return to the city after two decades of urban flight and the influx of young people coming to NYC to work and attend school and you have a demand for housing that exceeds supply.
Two restaurants doesn’t exactly make Sunnyside the Left Bank.
I’ve been in this neighborhood my whole life. I understand that change is an inevitability, but I’ve witnessed the cost of living here skyrocket at an abnormally higher rate as a result of gentrification. Those of us who are blue collar are finding it increasing difficult to survive. While there are certain aspects of the old Sunnyside I’m happy to see have changed, I just can’t help but feel that residents with lower incomes are now being priced out as a result of the demographic shift.
anonymous, you keep looking to the internet for articles that are facts….huh? wake up blindman
So many of the people here spend time complaining about different factors ruining the neighborhood, and the statements are very often either anti-hispanic, anti-hipster.
Maybe the most negative influence on the neighborhood is the lonely bigots who refuse to accept that their neighborhood/world is growing and changing.
@ anonymous I have a much lower standard of living than my parents did. And so do a lot of babyboomers. Many, not all, but many, many of them lost all they had in the 2008 crash. My cousin retired to a 2700 square foot house in Florida. Now he is back on Long Island living in a converted shed in a corner of someone else’s backyard. All because of what other people did.
Security is an illusion.
There are always exceptions to the rule. If you are young, go ahead, curse the world your parents made, it does stink. But so did the world they inherited, just in a different way. And your kids will blame you for handing them a steaming pile. That is what kids do.
Success does not come easily, but it does come. Despite all circumstances and predictions to the contrary. Keep your eye on your prize.
I sympathize with your Sunnysiders. I do. As long as they stay in LIC and Sunnyside and don’t start migrating into Woodside (which by the way has a much better commute then Sunnyside, we have the express train) things are great!
We are the first generation in this country that can expect a lower standard of living than that of our parents. Please post a financial article with a different point of view to assuage my concerns.
got it, you’re nostalgic – same as others before you missed trollies & milkmen – I’ll probably be the same way in 50 yrs.
@ anonymous
I read the articles you posted. I see now where you get your prickly, righteous anger. It sounds exactly like the prickly, righteous anger of the baby boom generation when they were your age. We were just waking up to the realities of shouldering the burdens of adulthood and blamed being alive on our parents. So, now I know how to take your fulminations. I will also cease reaching out to you, you are not ready for peace. But it is there when you get to that stage.
The financial article expresses a point of view. And I’ve read others that express another point of view. Since I don’t have a crystal ball, I’ll sit back and see over time if any of them were correct or if something unforeseeable occurs.
That is all.
@Artie
Thanks so much.
It heartens me to think that someone else is experiencing what I am experiencing. When I have expressed it here, my view is consistently and incorrectly heard as anger, resentment and even hatred by a portion of Sunnyside Post readers. I’m frustrated and in pain, but none of those other things.
May anonymous read it. May a light go on, so we can reach agreement.
@Carly, Krissi, and Emily. Glad you’re posting! On this site, there’s a lot of “bash the hipster” language, and it’s nice to actually hear non-ranting comments from people who get labeled as hipster.
Speaking for myself, I do care about gentrification and am not thrilled to be a part of it. Yet as a young professional/student, no matter where I move in this city, if it’s affordable enough for me to life there, then I’m likely also contributing to gentrification. There’s just no way out of it. I try to be a good neighbor by introducing myself and shopping at local businesses. Not everyone does, but by labeling an entire group of people as destructive of the neighborhood simply by existing, it makes it a very hostile environment.
Long read but it’s not just Sunnyside changing, check it out
https://medium.com/new-york-tales/d8da811ad804
2 more
http://heronstheband.com/2010/05/19/this-week-top-five-ways-the-baby-boomers-fucked-up-our-future/
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/charles-hugh-smith/brewing-generational-conflict
@ anonymous I guess you don’t want to find common ground. Okay. Peace.
here’s a fun read
http://www.chicagonow.com/lists-that-actually-matter/2013/06/7-reasons-baby-boomers-are-the-worst-generation/#image/7
don’t let them tell you where to live
@ sycamore
You mean natural change like Sunnyside planned communities? How are young people “disrespecting” you? Not paying you homage for everything you’ve “built”? Please.
@ lydon
There’s no generation with a larger sense of entitlement than baby boomers. That’s a fact.
@Anonymous Sorry i didn’t make my meaning clear. Natural change over always happens and is taken in stride. Unnatural, financially engineered change is disruptive. At least as far as I can tell. No one begrudges anyone the chance to grow and learn. But don’t do it by running over those who have come before you, who have made this place desirable by working at it diligently. Open your eyes and see that the world is a result of others’ work. Everyone deserves respect.
@Angray This is not a black and white issue, so extreme solutions are not necessary. This neighborhood has been changing at a more or less normal rate since the day it was built. It is the sudden, unnatural change that is disruptive.
Carly, you’re probably not a hipster. Do you think and act as if you are entitled? Beer and a t shirt do not make a hipster.
@ Sycamore
Do you know what the average age would be in this neighborhood if no youngins moved in? How is it natural to have ass old group of people die off all at once? That would accelerate the transition of the neighborhood I suppose.
You moved here at some point as well and at least had the opportunity to grow and be happy. Don’t begrudge young people the same.
Thank you Carly. I’m a Manhattan transplant who purchased an apt here 5 years ago. I knew about the area because a close friend (also a “yuppie”) grew up here and is raising her kids here.
I’m in this neighborhood for the long haul, and love its very relaxed vibe. But I also appreciate some of the more “chic” businesses that have been opening. We don’t have to make this neighborhood Williamsburg (so god help me!) but there’s nothing wrong with adding businesses and amenities that appeal to a younger generation.
Sycamore
“That’s all, it is a natural human process taking place on an artificially accelerated level”
I mostly agree with your post, but this has been happening all over NYC for years. There’s been a major movement of people moving back into the cities for 20 years now. That’s what is driving the sales/rental prices.
Sycamore – Are you really claiming to be a “victim” here? How have you been wronged? What are the damages you incurred?
Here is a solution, build a time machine and freeze time so your fine tuning will never change.
Carly rae, plaid t-shirt? da fuq?
I am one of so called” hipsters” who recently moved to sunnyside. I lived in Brooklyn for 13 years and Greenpoint for 6 of the 13. Our rent got raised a crazy amount and we had to look elsewhere. Sunnyside was the most affordable, nice, convenient and neighborhoodly area we could find. We wanted some place that we could go out to eat in and hang out in. I think we are an asset to your neighborhood and are not overpaid, trust fund people, just regular 30 somethings looking to make a living in New York and have a place to call home. So are my friends who move here. Rents going up all over the city and young people are desperate to afford to live somewhere nice.
Well said Carly.
Well, in my book, you qualify as part of the hip young crowd that is moving in in droves. But I would never call anyone “hipster scum.” People aren’t scum. The problem isn’t the hipsters, it is the real estate industry that has focused a great deal of energy on promoting this area to young people. Until they started to do this, Sunnyside was as anonymous as any other neighborhood in Queens. Population turnover was natural and the established community worked well. A sudden influx of young people doing what young people do: socializing a great deal, investigating “new” things, experimenting with styles, in effect fine tuning themselves, is destabilizing. Long time residents’ carefully calibrated lives–remember we did all that fine tuning years ago and know what we like and how we like it–have been turned upside down by people who don’t realize that their activity is very disruptive when it is conducted in large numbers.
That’s all, it is a natural human process taking place on an artificially accelerated level. Both of us are victims of people with a great deal more money and power than we have.
Experience teaches one to endure the unendurable, even the young.
What’s it mean to be a hipster? I’m a twenty-five year old graduate student that just moved to Sunnyside gardens. Sunnyside wasn’t originally on my list, but I couldn’t afford Williamsburg, Greenpoint, certainly any where in Manhattan outside of Inwood, or many parts of Brooklyn that I was okay walking around late at night, when my work often gets out.
I chose Sunnyside gardens because it’s affordable and I love the environment.
I also love good coffeeshops, great bars, and small businesses. I spend money at local businesses. Am I driving up the housing costs? Maybe, but this really isn’t a problem that can be blamed on me, or other young newcomers. We’re just going where the rent is affordable.
Yeah, you can look at my youth, my glasses, my plaid tshirt, and love for fancy beer and yell “HIPSTER SCUM”, or you can see me for someone new to the community who really loves this place.
Winter is coming. BOOKSTORE!!!!
Welcome Hipsters good bye tired old BORING seniors.
Partypalooza, hipsters are definitely NOT punk.
Squirts is back! Yay Squirts!
Time to get rid of the OLD FARTS welcome and the young Hipsters.
More change for me! Hem nem nem hem nem!
“Let Sunnyside be the little town in a big city and not change it to a place were only hipsters can strive and everyone else is left out the picture as if we’re the minority”
“I agree that as it is right now Sunnyside is not even in the same realm as places like Williamsburgh, Lower East side, Greenpoint or Park Slope/Carrol Gardens when it comes to being hipsterized.”
“I doubt ‘hipsters’ would eat at Salt and Fat”
“a hipster used to those freakin skinny jeans wearing bearded guys who rode skateboards down the street and wrote screenplays on their macs”
“We shall not be a truly hipster neighborhood until we have our own snotty punk rock club on the blv.”
If 99.99% of the population is insane, then it’s the sane person who’s considered crazy. I guess I’m the only one amused by the confused, but earnest, Groupthink.
How ’bout instead of fabricating nonsense labels we just view people as people?
But it’s cute how so many press on, completely oblivious that they’re speaking of gobbledygook.
This article and report only further proves my decade-old thesis that there is no such thing as a hipster.
A “hipster,” according to Realty Trac, is a person between the ages of 25-34, walks or takes mass transit to work, and rents.
Notice it doesn’t say anything about skin color, jeans’ size, or food preferences.
Thanks RealtyTrac for needlessly applying a loaded, useless, and abused term to a very straightforward demographic profile.
It’s like the brain-dead leading the brain-dead. And then the parrots follow in kind – squawk squawk hipster hipster squawk squawk…
I noticed a lot of Brooklyn beards in the neighborhood.
I have nothing against hipsters. Just wish they would hang out and shop at our local bars,resteraunts and stores. They prefer to hang in the village or else where in manhattan and just use the cheaper rents in Sunnyside to sleep and shower in. If u live in this community then support the community where you choose to live .
HEY BQE…. My father still lives in sunnyside for the last 40 years & pays 700 for 1600 sq ft apt that mgnt renovates into 2 apts & rents for 2,200
If your father is still in a rent controlled or stabilized apt…..might be a great idea to move in with him…….because you could take over his lease…
And that would be the best 401k retirement plan you will ever get in your life…….CHEAP RENT!
Trendy neighborhood? Baaah ok. Unless you enjoy sitting your ass on a stool and drinking all day this neighborhood is actually pretty stale. It gets old quick. If these morons are dumb enough to pay these types of rents to live in this highly overrated neighborhood, then they deserve to have their pockets drained.
Not sure what the hell makes this neighborhood trendy. If you consider bar after bar trendy I guess ya dont get out much. Its actually pretty damn stale unless your a drinker If these morons wanna pay so much to live in a neighborbood as overated as this one is,they deserve to get their wallets sucked dry.
I wonder at the photo selections for this story. I doubt ‘hipsters’ would eat at Salt and Fat
Hipster = youngish, working a couple of jobs, no kids, no attachments really, probably transplant from somewhere else. Not necessarily high income (as opposed to yuppies or DINKs.) They might live with a gaggle of roommates to afford ever-increasing rent.
This neighborhood has some cute restaurants and a few cool bars/pub but it’s not ‘hip.’
Well I’ve heard they even have a band now ” The Sunnyside social club ” I’ve seen them play the’re Great old time music but it is a bit hip, what’s next a whole foods?
I agree that as it is right now Sunnyside is not even in the same realm as places like Williamsburgh, Lower East side, Greenpoint or Park Slope/Carrol Gardens when it comes to being hipsterized. Sunnyside is still very much a residential neighborhood… just a little bit hipper than it used to be. We still lack a great coffee place, good pizza, boutique stores, etc…
Also, there just isn’t that many places to hang out here. You walk past 43rd street or around 49th the opposite direction and that’s where the “hipsterization” ends. Woodside is OK, but it’s straight up residential and not the most appealing to young people.
I grew up in Sunnyside and I’m still very fond of it, but I’d much rather spend my time in Astoria as there is way more to do there
http://www.diehipster.com
Fun read
according to this, hipster is an age range… when did this change? a hipster used to those freakin skinny jeans wearing bearded guys who rode skateboards down the street and wrote screenplays on their macs. Freakin jerks… but if my property values are going up. BRING it on!!! When are we getting our first pickle store?
If it was reported by RealtyTrac, then it is so!
They’re THE source on what’s hot and what is not.
Sunnyside will never be a “hipster” neighborhood. Nice try!
NO!!!
RIFF RAFFY!!!!! :DDD
Seriously?! I agree with the other commenters who asked if this is an article from The Onion. Sunnyside is an amazing neighborhood and one that I have enjoyed living in for 10 years, but it is about as hip as Poughkeepsie. The New York Times ran that ridiculous article about Queens being the next Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Maybe LIC and Astoria but Sunnyside has a looooong way to go before we’ll be overrun by “hipsters”… not even sure exactly what those are anymore. Grumpy commenters can relax. It ain’t happening any time soon.
Don’t worry, those bands of youths wielding their “knockout punches” will soon bring your values down.
We shall not be a truly hipster neighborhood until we have our own snotty punk rock club on the blv.
BQE made me laugh so hard, its nice to see people who share the same mentality.
I laugh at hipsters in my building. One hipster couple moved from one floor to another floor only to move out of THAT apartment 2 months later. Hipsters are a bunch of NOMADS..
Sunnyside used to be a nice quiet place. I can’t wait to get out of it.
We are not Greenpoint yet, but I see more and more hipster idiots wandering around here every day. Scary.
Sunnyside is doomed for life. If it weren’t for the big wave of hipsters coming to the neighborhood and the emergence of hipsterism ideas for new businesses and places of living, then we wouldn’t be in this mess. I just don’t understand why there are people who want to transform Sunnyside into a place that is almost like other hipster neighborhoods such as Williamsburg, Brooklyn for example. Let Sunnyside be the little town in a big city and not change it to a place were only hipsters can strive and everyone else is left out the picture as if we’re the minority. I bet when they read everyone’s comments on this article they will come to their senses.
RIFF RAFF be gone!!!!!!!
Apartments here seem to open up only when longtime residents move to Dixie. After years of thrifting and shifting between various crummy parts of Brooklyn, young people can smell a bargain.
One could make the argument that Sunnyside is NOT a hipster neighborhood, simply because the best pizza restaurant in the area closes long before drunk o’clock.
Wait!!! There’s been an”influx of trendy restaurants, bars and other amenities”?!?!?!?!
Really? Where?
Hipster walks into a bar on Queens Boulevard as we’re sitting there watching college basketball. He looks at the bartender and says” will you turn on the Celtic game”. Bartender says “Sure” and changes the channel. Then he turns to the hipster and says “what can I get you”. “Uh, give me a minute, will you?”. Five minutes later the bartender walks back and says again “What can I get you?” Hipster says “Nothing. I’m just watching the game”. Bartender says “not on my stool your not. this is a place of business. Order something or get out”. Hipster says “give me a club soda”. Bartender draws him a pint of seltzer, places it in front of him and says “That’ll be $4”. Hipster says “Why???!!! It’s just water”.
And this is what the real estate sharks are bringing to our neighborhood?
They are living in dream world if they think hipsters equal trust funders. The only one benefitting from this neighborhood designation are the dirt bag residential landlords who get to charge astronomical rents without putting one dime into improving their property. Not to mention the commercial spaces that are way overpriced and shopped to potential business owners that are sold the “Sunnyside is the next Williamsburg” line of BS. Tell that to the owners of all the neighborhood businesses that failed because the rents were excessive and the hipsters weren’t actually trust funders but rather 20-something year olds making entry level wages and cramming people into small apartments so they can make it work. The worst thing that ever happened to this neighborhood is the Business Improvement District designation.
Is this from the Onion?
Is this suppose to be good news? Seasons Greetings? The reality check will come about mid-2014 when the inevitable downturn in the up cycle of the NYC economy is bound to occur, spurred on by the back to the future quality of life crimes which permeated neighborhoods like Sunnyside during the Dinkens years.
hah. sunnyside, “hip.” not even close. have you been to an actually hip neighborhood like greenpoint? hip is when there are no 1BRs under $2k.
sunnyside has a looooooooong way to go from 99 cent stores and pubs to cocktail bars and boutique clothing stores. nice try realtors.
we ARE somebody!
Most of the residents will be in homes soon anyway. With a big enough influx of vacant rentals the market won’t allow for too big of a price increase.
I’m getting the popcorn for this thread.
I left this neighborhood years ago…i live in a gem of a neighborhood in queens( not saying were…F U transplants/hipsters!!!) I pay 1600 for a 2 bedroom with backyard…while these fuckers pay that for a studio!!!! My father still lives in sunnyside for the last 40 years & pays 700 for 1600 sq ft apt that mgnt renovates into 2 apts & rents for 2,200 each…hahahaha….You fucking transplants are getting rape with no vasseline that’s why you ride bikes..cause you can’t afford $2.50 for the train…hipsters are the new mexicans!!!
Hahaha I’d hardly say we’ve had an influx of ‘trendy’ restaurants and bars, there may be a few hipsters here and a few new spots but this ain’t no Greenpoint folks!
@Taps you got it right. What no income qualifier? I thought Hipsters were rich. It would make sense to also add an income qualifier, otherwise you’re counting all the young immigrants as well.
Definitely true, I moved into a studio on 46th St a few blocks south of Queens Boulevard (which isn’t even the nice part of Sunnyside) in 2011 for $1200/month, a year later they upped it to $1300 and if I hadn’t moved out a year later they were going to up it to $1400. FOR A STUDIO?!
quarantine greenpoint avenue.
Their definition of “hipster neighborhood” is based on places where young people take public transportation to work, so it’s not exactly scientific. And rental yield is just rental income divided by expenses. Is anyone surprised that landlords in Sunnyside are charging high rents without putting money into buildings?
I think this is just some bullcrap spun by real-estate vampires trying to suck a few more bucks out of the neighborhood before moving on to the next one.
there goes the neighborhood…………
Damn it. I love living here and now this…