fuva from harlem world.... well actually when Bed-Stuy was built originally it would what would be called today "a lovely town"... In essence - just like Harlem - it's more that they are coming full circle to what they originally were.

Hunts Point in the Bronx was once an area of estates for rich landowners.... while we won't see that again... it's current housing stock was considered very nice when it was first built.

I just recently moved from Greenpoint, Bk; I had to move out of state for a job. Our apartment was inhabited by 4 unrelated young adults, all of which made about 55k/year. We were not a family unit, but were a household. So, our combined yearly income of 200k+ is a little deceiving, yes? I have a feeling many New York neighborhoods are made up of units such as ours... Is there any data to map this phenomenon?

Sheldon, I live in the part of Bed Stuy mentioned, and I paid a lot less than $700K a year ago for a brownstone, but the house needed a lot of work. Conversely, yes, people in my neighborhood are making more than $51K if they are buying houses in Bed Stuy today. The census numbers are balanced out by families who are still making a moderate income, but who's homes were passed down through the family, and paid off by parents or grandparents....

@Inquisgal

If you make the argument in terms of dollars/ space, almost everyone should move out of NYC (check out housing prices in upstate NY). The point is, people want to live in Manhattan and in New York City because of what it offers. The outer borough/ Manhattan disparity was not always the way it is today. If it continues, it will (this has also been occurring for years already) put more and more pressure on rents in the outer boroughs - look at the incredible development of luxury housing that has occurred in downtown Brooklyn and is spreading. How many real "bargains" are left, anywhere in the city? Unfortunately, it's hard for our politicians to resist campaign contributions --> zoning changes that have facilitated these changes. The cards are stacked against the have-nots. The 80/20 housing is a farce, because it eventually reverts to total luxury housing. So much for "building affordable housing for New Yorkers" trumpeted over and over again by the Bloomberg administration. I've seen this change, which really accelerated under Ed Koch, during my lifetime, and I'm afraid that unless there is real public resistance, we will totally lose affordable housing here within the next two generations.

You can't get a decent brownstone in Bed Stuy for less than 700k. A lot of people must be making over 51k.

If you all didn't live by your stereotypes, you would NOT be surprised by the median income level in Bed Stuy!

Bed Stuy is being gentrified. On some level, this accounts for it currently repping median income.

I live on the Upper-West Side, and just my apartment building is incredibly complex in terms of income. Elderly, longtime rent-controlled tenants are often living in near poverty right next door to young i-bankers living in gut-renovated, $5/month one-bedrooms. It's suprisingly democratic how people all get mixed together.

Here's my comment from the news article for this survey on the WNYC page:

This seems to be a rather broad brush with which to make such a proclamation, American Community Survey. How many of these newcomers - I wonder - are paying their own rent? What industries do they work in? Are they indeed "doing well" or has that only been inferred based on their zip code and real estate comps for those areas? How many are 4-member families or young adults who are packed into a small 1 bedrooms in the Village, or multi-generation families packed into a 2 bedroom? And is it perhaps more indicative of the newcomers' naivete of the rest of New York City - as opposed to the fact they they are "doing well" - that made them choose the most high-profile areas of Manhattan to settle in? Do these people leave these neighborhoods after they realize how ripped off they are getting in the amount of space they are getting for their dollars? What is the percentage of newcomers who have been in NYC for 5 years who wake up and smell the coffee and move to other neighborhoods and boroughs?