NYC shocks the market with housing lottery for apartments under $175k—near Central Park
New York City is planning to sell apartments on the Upper West Side of Manhattan just two blocks from Central Park for as low as $173,801.
The 17 studio and one-bedroom units in the pre-war walk-up building come with hardwood floors and air conditioning, and will be sold via a lottery to New Yorkers making less than 120% of the area’s median income and who have no more than about $280,000 of assets. More than 10,000 people have already applied ahead of the Aug. 27 deadline.
The overwhelming demand underscores the city’s housing crisis, with the biggest shortage in over five decades amid sky-high rents and an influx of immigrants that’s filled city shelters. The raffles, run by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, placed a record 9,550 households into affordable units in the past fiscal year. Mayor Eric Adams is also pushing to encourage more residential construction and recently used rezoning to pave the way for 7,000 new homes in the Bronx.
The Upper West Side building — on West 80th Street — is one block from both the American Museum of Natural History and gourmet market Zabar’s, and two blocks from the subway. It’s a few doors down from The Orleans, where a four-bedroom condo was recently priced at $7.8 million, while some cheaper options include a studio for nearly half a million dollars.
“It seems too good to be true,” said Ruth Miller, a retired head of a foundation who walked by the building to check it out recently. She wants her 31-year-old daughter — who moved back home as rents rose — to apply to the lottery. “This is almost what I bought my house for in 1991.”
The raffles, administered by NYC Housing Connect, allows those who meet income requirements to apply once per development. Buildings in the lottery program include properties built on city-owned land or units built using affordable housing subsidies or tax exemptions.
For the building on West 80th Street, households of two people with a combined income of no more than $149,160 are eligible; three people earning no more than $167,760 could apply for a one-bedroom unit. The apartment must be the buyer’s primary residence, down payments of 5% are required, and there are restrictions on resales.
The price works out to as little as $340 per square foot, a bargain not only in Manhattan but also in cities like Austin, Texas, where the median market value of downtown homes is $738 per square foot, and in Santa Monica, California, where the median in one ZIP code is $862 per square foot, according to Zillow estimates.
The city is also raffling homes in other tony neighborhoods like Hudson Yards, one of the most expensive in Manhattan, including more than 100 rental units in a 46-story tower at 550 10th Ave. that has 20,000 square feet of amenities like a sky lounge and a fitness club. Two-bedroom units are $3,861 a month for families of four earning no more than $194,125.
Buildings in Astoria, Queens, and the Upper East Side of Manhattan are also participating.
