Analysis: Where NYC’s out-of-state buyers come from

During the pandemic, the media narrative was about residents fleeing New York City to resettle elsewhere in the country. But all the while, out-of-state buyers have been investing in Manhattan real estate.

To figure out what states those buyers are coming from — and where in the central borough they’re buying — The Real Deal examined residential sales closed in the two years leading up to Oct. 25, 2023, in which named buyers had addresses outside of New York.

Purchases made through shell companies were ignored, but the resulting sample of 6,269 transactions, comprising over $7 billion in volume, paints a picture of which states and cities have the most people buying in New York City.

The state whose residents bought the most city real estate over the past two years was, by far, the one just across the Hudson: New Jersey. The bridge-and-tunnel crowd sank $1.48 billion into the city across 1,432 deals — over 20 percent of the total volume of the sample.

California was next with $1.25 billion, or nearly 17 percent of the sample volume. But buyers from the Golden State purchased pricier homes on average than their New Jersey counterparts, as Californians’ volume was spread across just 900 deals.

More than 15 percent of that spending came from San Francisco buyers, followed by Los Angelenos, who accounted for 11 percent.

Even as “Wall Street South” blossomed in West Palm Beach, Floridians still bought up property in the home of the original, dropping nearly $788 million on 651 homes in the sample. Nearly 16 percent of that volume came from Miami and Miami Beach buyers.

Connecticut placed No. 4, with named buyers from the Nutmeg State spending nearly $567 million on 465 New York City homes (with nearly 16 percent of that coming from Greenwich). Massachusetts rounded out the top five with nearly $443 million across 299 deals (with nearly 32 percent of that volume coming out of Boston).

Ranking only by city, San Francisco had the highest volume of purchases with over $191 million across 119 deals. No. 2 was much closer to home: Great Neck. Residents of the Long Island hamlet just across the border from Queens dropped nearly $189 million on 167 homes in the city.

Scarsdale, a wealthy Westchester County suburb, followed with $141 million on 84 deals. Boston was next with about the same volume, but spread across just 52 deals. Los Angeles rounded out the top five with 108 purchases totalling nearly $140 million.

Where is all that money going? The most popular neighborhood for buyers from outside of the city was the Upper West Side, where they spent nearly $592 million on 384 homes.

Lenox Hill, on the East Side, was second with almost $512 million in volume across 278 deals. Lincoln Square followed with nearly $481 million over 306 purchases. The Upper East Side ranked No. 4 with over $338 million spent on 253 homes, and Chelsea rounded out the top five with just over $325 million spent on 194 residences.

To access the full dataset underlying the rankings as well as key contact information, check out TRD Data, The Real Deal’s new data subscription platform. 

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