Belle Harbor is a micro-neighborhood in the Rockaways not far from Riis Park, and it's making waves because of a recent Property Shark report measuring the median home price on a particular block at a whopping $2.5 million dollars—a surprise to everyone, including the local folks selling the homes. Most real estate types were expecting the Forest Hills area, in which median home prices hover around $1.3 to $1.6 million in one particular block, to take the cake in New York's largest borough in area.
The surprise extends further when you consider that over the past year, the surrounding area saw a 50 percent rise in assaults, burglaries and robberies. Adding further injury, the neighborhood's closest hospital was temporarily shut down only a few weeks ago.
Despite all the setbacks, at least one realtor, Annette Farina of Belle Harbor Reality, says the area "deserves it," specifically the high prices, due to the lovely sea air. According to the Daily News and the realtor report, Belle Harbor is only four blocks long, on or around Rockaway Beach Blvd. between Beach 145th and Beach 146th Sts. However Wikipedia begs to differ, saying it's more like 15 or 16.
Could this just be an odd fluke of real estate, or home-cost gerrymandering? Perhaps it is the proximity of these big houses to Rockaway Taco and other hip boardwalk establishments is augmenting the prices.
