Borough Park, Kensington & Ditmas Park Are Some Of Most Crowded Neighborhoods In Brooklyn

Sarah Crean -
Demonstration for housing reform organized by the Flatbush Tenant Coalition. (Photo: Ditmas Park Corner)

As rents continue to rise, so too does crowding in apartments.

A recent analysis by StreetEasy found that rates of overcrowding — defined as more than one person per room, including living and dining rooms — in neighborhoods like Borough Park, Kensington and Ditmas Park, are as much as twice the rate in New York City overall.

StreetEasy’s analysis uses Census data from 2013. That year, 8.9 percent of all New York City households met the definition of “crowded,” they report, as compared to a rate of 3.3 percent across the U.S.

Brooklyn is the second most crowded borough in New York City, and the borough in which crowding is growing most rapidly, reports StreetEasy.

Several neighborhoods in our immediate area are among the ten most crowded neighborhoods in Brooklyn using StreetEasy’s analysis.

1.)  Windsor Terrace 19.6%
2.)  Sunset Park 19.6%
3.)  Greenwood Heights 18.6%
4.)  Borough Park 17.1%
5.)  Kensington 16.7%
6.)  Bushwick 16%
7.)  Ocean Parkway 15.2%
8.)  East New York 13.9%
9.)  Ditmas Park 12.6%
10.) Bath Beach 12.3%

Brooklyn is home to five of the 10 New York City neighborhoods with the fastest growth in overcrowding — Manhattan Beach, Gerritsen Beach, Sheepshead Bay, Bath Beach and Bensonhurst, says Jihee Kim, StreetEasy’s data scientist.

In terms of the five boroughs overall, the percentage of households considered “crowded” in 2013 were:

Bronx: 12.4 percent
Brooklyn: 10.3 percent
Queens: 9.4 percent
Manhattan: 5.4 percent
Staten Island: 3.4 percent

And here are three other surprising facts to come out of StreetEasy’s analysis of 2013 housing data:

  • New York City now has 8.26 million inhabitants;
  • Between 2010 and 2013, the city’s overall crowding rate FELL from 9.2 to 8.9 percent;
  • The typical New York household will spend a “staggering” 65.4 percent of its annual income on median asking rent in 2016, up from 58.4 percent in 2015.

“The reason for this growing [rent]  burden lies in stagnant income growth and higher rents,” says StreetEasy.