This Iconic Manhattan Neighborhood Is NYC's Most Expensive

New York City’s SoHo neighborhood has undergone many transformations since being a swampy meadow in the 1700s. The area, south of Houston Street (hence its name — SoHo), is now a vibrant commercial hub in lower Manhattan, home to some of the city’s chicest boutique hotels, trendy stores, and prestigious art galleries. So it should come as no surprise that the neighborhood also has some of the priciest real estate in Manhattan and was just named the most expensive neighborhood in the city by StreetEasy for 2023.

The real estate website analyzed the median listing prices of homes in every New York City neighborhood and noted that properties in SoHo were consistently valued with eye-popping price tags. So how much do you have to pay for a chance to live in this desirable area? According to the website, the median asking price for a residence was $4.25 million. SoHo is followed by neighboring Tribeca ($3.95 million) and Nolita ($2,822,500) in StreetEasy’s ranking. In 2022, the top three most expensive neighborhoods in New York City remained the same. 

However, when the company looked at rental prices, SoHo fell to number four behind Tribeca, Brooklyn’s Dumbo, and the Flatiron District. For a chance to rent an apartment in SoHo, potential residents must be ready to pay $5,350 per month. New York City was the priciest city to rent in 2023.

However, SoHo’s beautiful cast iron buildings weren’t always fetching top dollar. In the 1880s and early 1900s, they housed many factories, while during the Great Depression, SoHo’s streets were lined up with makeshift shacks. A 1963 report stated that a fourth of the businesses in what was then called the South Houston Industrial Area were in the textile and apparel industry, producing “women’s and children’s underwear, blouses, skirts, and sportswear of standard design, which are not affected by the vagaries of fashion or the violence of fads.”

In the '60s and '70s, as the textile industry moved further north, artists took residence in SoHo’s lofts, which made for great working spaces thanks to their oversized windows letting plenty of natural light in. Interestingly, living in the lofts, which many artists did, was illegal until 1971. According to the non-profit SoHo Memory Project, SoHo’s transformation into a wealthy neighborhood began in the 1980s when the area started attracting well-off residents, famous artists, and galleries that opened shop there.

Nowadays, real estate company Compass lists the neighborhood’s creative heritage and walkability as some benefits of living there, but also warns that potential residents should not expect to have “substantial indoor space or easily accessible outdoor space.”