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The Queens Sales Market in 2026: A Borough at Record Highs, Block by Block

· Yaoling Zhuang (Queenie) · 7 min read

Queens just posted its highest quarterly median sale price on record — but the borough-wide number hides five very different markets. Here is what the data from StreetEasy, Redfin, and Douglas Elliman actually says about Flushing, Long Island City, Forest Hills, Bayside, and Jackson Heights, and what it means if you're buying or selling in 2026.

This report preserves the market context and figures at publication. For current developments, visit News & trends. Latest stories

The Queens Sales Market in 2026: A Borough at Record Highs, Block by Block

Acroterion — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

A borough at a record high — with a wide spread underneath

Queens entered 2026 on a high note. According to the Douglas Elliman / Miller Samuel fourth-quarter report, the borough's median sale price reached $739,053 in Q4 2025, up 5.6% year-over-year — the highest quarterly median Elliman has ever recorded for Queens (QNS / Douglas Elliman, Jan 2026). That headline is real, but it averages over a borough where co-ops still close around $339,750 (+6.5% YoY), condos near $680,000 (−0.5%), and one-to-three-family homes around $910,000 (+4.6%) (Douglas Elliman, Q4 2025). In other words: the "Queens market" is at least three markets, and at the neighborhood level the spread is even wider.

Inventory is the other half of the story. StreetEasy reports Queens for-sale supply rose 17.7% in 2025 — the largest jump of any borough — with Flushing inventory up 48.4% and Long Island City up 36.4% (StreetEasy, 2025 Year in Review). More choice plus still-elevated mortgage rates is exactly the cocktail that lets prices set records in some pockets while softening in others.

Figures as of June 19, 2026; sources listed at the end.

The numbers, neighborhood by neighborhood

NeighborhoodMedian sale pricePrice / sq ftYoY trendDays on marketSource (as-of)
Flushing~$687K~$750≈ flat (−0.8%)~58Redfin (Nov 2025)
Long Island City~$1.03M~$959up (~+19%)~60–70*Redfin (~Sep–Oct 2025); StreetEasy 2025 median asking ~$1.24M
Forest Hills~$430–445K~$475–485 (zip 11375 ~$640)down (low single digits)~50–60*Redfin (mid–late 2025)
Bayside~$860K neighborhood / ~$1.1M (zip 11361)~$677 (11361)up sharply but volatile~45–60Redfin (2025)
Jackson Heights~$430K~$516down (−7%)~95Redfin (Oct 2025)

*Days-on-market for LIC and Forest Hills are approximate; neighborhood-level DOM swings month to month on small sample sizes. Treat all single-neighborhood figures as directional, not precise — Redfin's neighborhood pages mix co-ops, condos, and houses and update monthly.

Flushing: flat prices, surging supply

Flushing's median sale price was roughly $687K in November 2025, essentially flat (about −0.8%) year-over-year, with price per square foot near $750 (down ~6.5%) and homes selling in about 58 days (Redfin, Nov 2025). The story here isn't price — it's the 48% inventory surge (StreetEasy, 2025). For buyers, that's the most negotiating leverage Flushing has offered in years. For sellers, it means pricing sharply and staging well; the days of naming a number and waiting are over in this submarket.

Long Island City: the priciest pocket, and the most rate-sensitive

LIC is the borough's high-water mark on price: a median around $1.03M, up roughly 19% year-over-year, with price per square foot near $959 (Redfin, ~late 2025). StreetEasy's 2025 median asking price for LIC was even higher at about $1,235,000 (StreetEasy, 2025) — a reminder that ask and close are not the same number. With inventory up 36% and a heavily condo, new-development profile, LIC is the most sensitive in Queens to interest-rate moves and concession-heavy negotiations. The per-square-foot swings in the data are large, so read LIC pricing per-building, not per-neighborhood.

Forest Hills: the value story softening at the margin

Forest Hills — a co-op-heavy, pre-war market — sat around a $430K–$445K median in mid-to-late 2025, down low single digits year-over-year, with price per square foot roughly $475–$485 at the neighborhood level (Redfin, 2025), while the broader 11375 zip ran richer at about $640/sq ft (Redfin, 2025). The split reflects property mix: Forest Hills Gardens houses pull the zip up, while Austin Street co-ops anchor the lower neighborhood median. For value-focused buyers priced out of Manhattan, this remains one of Queens' steadier entry points.

Bayside: real strength, noisy data

Bayside is where we'll be most candid: the data is genuinely strong but genuinely noisy. Redfin's neighborhood page showed a median around $860K, up ~42% year-over-year in November 2025, while the 11361 zip posted about $1.1M, up ~11%, with ~$677/sq ft and ~45 days on market (Redfin, 2025). A 42% neighborhood jump on a small monthly sample is almost certainly a property-mix artifact, not true appreciation — so we'd describe Bayside as appreciating in the high single to low double digits, with single-family houses doing the heavy lifting. Bayside's blue-ribbon schools keep house demand resilient even as rates bite.

Jackson Heights: prices down, time on market way up

Jackson Heights tells the clearest "buyer's market" story: median around $430K, down 7% year-over-year, price per square foot near $516 (up ~12%), and — most tellingly — homes sitting about 95 days on market, up from 71 a year earlier (Redfin, Oct 2025). The rising per-foot figure alongside falling median suggests smaller, well-priced units are still moving while larger co-ops linger. Sellers here should expect to negotiate; buyers have time to be patient.

What the data means for 2026

Three takeaways. First, inventory has rebalanced the borough — Queens is no longer a uniform seller's market; it's neighborhood-by-neighborhood and, increasingly, building-by-building. Second, rates still rule: the condo-heavy, higher-price pockets (LIC, new-development Bayside) move most when rates twitch, while co-op markets (Forest Hills, Jackson Heights) grind more slowly. Third, the median is a blunt instrument — every figure above shifts with property mix, so price your specific home off comparable closed sales, not a borough headline.

Reading these numbers correctly is the whole game, and it's where a bilingual, data-literate team earns its keep — Homix pairs neighborhood-level data with English- and Mandarin-language guidance and the media reach to get a listing seen by the right buyers across these communities. If you want a comp-based read on your block, reach out to us or browse current listings.