Everything Old Is New Again in Crown Heights: The 2026 Market

From the Mendy Realty archive, first published by Mendy Lipsker.

I was born, grew up and still live in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. The area was originally called “Crow Hill” due to a succession of hills running east to west, but the name was changed to Crown Heights in 1916 when Crown Street was cut through.

Historically, Crown Heights was very upscale where many prominent and affluent New Yorkers chose to live, but in the 60s and 70s that all changed. The Crown Heights/Bedford Stuyvesant area became a very rough and dangerous neighborhood. Crime and unemployment were high, and many people considered it an undesirable place to live.  The lowest point in the area’s history was the riots of the early 90s. That was a very sad time.

As the 90s progressed, however, a renaissance of not only Crown Heights but all of Brooklyn began. Workers in the technology field with money to spend began to flood the New York area, and many of them chose to live in Brooklyn. The financial industry also pulled in a lot of people with money who could afford nicer places to live, which in turn allowed the real estate industry to boom, injecting even more money into the economy.

Initially, people chose to live in the Williamsburg, Park Slope and Fort Greene areas, but lately it seems that those areas have become very expensive and unaffordable for many people. This has brought about a surge in Bushwick, Crown Heights & Bedford Stuyvesant real estate.

An article from Bloomberg.com talks about how investors got ahold of some houses in Crown Heights, fixed them up and made a huge profit. People were willing to buy those houses because it's much less expensive than even smaller properties in the surrounding areas. One real estate agent was quoted in the Bloomberg article as saying, “My cheapest house for sale in Fort Greene/Clinton Hill is $2.5 million. If you have $1.5 million and you’re my client, I’m driving you to Bed-Stuy or Crown Heights.”