Bad News and Good News from the High Line

If you live within shouting distance of the High Line on Manhattan’s West Side, we’ve got bad news and good news for you: the elevated High Line park is perpetually gridlocked with tourists, but the value of your apartment has gone through the roof.

This tradeoff is spelled out in a new study by StreetEasy, which documents that the clogged park has given an “astronomical” boost to real estate values in the immediately surrounding blocks.

The High Line, built on an abandoned elevated railroad track, snakes north from Gansevoort Street to 34th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues. In the southernmost section, the median resale price hit $2.1 million in May of this year – double the value in the “comparison area” just one block to the east, and 75 percent higher than other pricey downtown Manhattan neighborhoods such as Tribeca, Soho, the West Village, and Gramercy Park.

Last month, an event on the High Line drew such a huge crowd that the park had to be shut down. The number of visitors to the park has nearly quadrupled in the past six years, going from 2 million in 2010 to 7.6 million last year.

Meanwhile, the median sale price of a new condo near the mid-section of the park surpassed the $6 million mark.