Over the last few years, something like conventional wisdom cohered around northern Staten Island: New development and new arrivals would make it the New Williamsburg.
Art galleries, bars and cafés opened near the ferry to Manhattan. The first annual Rock the Harbor music festival took place last June. A graffiti artist scrawled "Williamsburg II" on construction fences. The New York Times a year ago dubbed the North Shore "Bohemia by the Bay." Condominium towers with city views sprouted along Bay Street Landing, luring Wall Streeters across the water. Creative types and Brooklyn refugees trickled in.
But in this market, can the gentrification continue? Although home sales are up annually by close to 30 percent in St. George, the relatively trendier neighborhood on the North Shore, the median sales price dropped 20 percent between October 2007 and September 2008, according to Trulia. (Compare that to a 6 percent decrease in home sales in the borough overall.) read more »
