Hell’s Kitchen has come a long way since the mid-1900s. Once known as a gritty neighborhood where many New Yorkers opted to stay away from rather than visit or live, the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood has transformed pretty significantly over the last 20 years or so.
While it’s unclear exactly where the name Hell’s Kitchen originated, it dates back to as early as 1881, when a reporter for the New York Times described a tenement located on 39th Street and Tenth Avenue as Hell’s Kitchen, saying it was “probably the lowest and filthiest in the city.”
Hell’s Kitchen was a traditionally poor and working-class Irish-American neighborhood through the 1970s, but began to slowly but surely change in the years since, particularly following a City Planning Commission push to improve that particular region of Manhattan.
The neighborhood began gentrifying in the 1990s, and rents have risen rapidly since then, pushing the working class out, attracting new tenants and giving Hell’s Kitchen a completely different vibe and culture. It has become a gathering place for the LGBTQ community, and offers many eclectic, multi-ethnic restaurants and culture opportunities such as flea markets.
Today, Hell’s Kitchen is a very desirable neighborhood that has an impressive mix of restaurants and culture opportunities to go along with its convenient location. The border of the neighborhood is traditionally considered to be 34th Street at the south, 59th Street at the north, Eighth Avenue at the east and the Hudson River at the west.
Hell’s Kitchen, sometimes referred to as Clinton, is in a prime location for transportation and access to Midtown Manhattan’s business district, as well as medical and warehouse facilities.
The median sales price of properties in Hell’s Kitchen has grown steadily since August 2018. In March, the median home sales price for the neighborhood was $1 million, which represented a year-over-year increase of 6 percent. At $1,366, the median per-square-foot price for the month represented a 3 percent year-over-year increase as well.
Compared to the rest of the borough, median home prices place Hell’s Kitchen almost smack in the middle of Manhattan neighborhoods. The overall median sales price for Manhattan in March was $1.2 million.
In terms of rentals, Hell’s Kitchen’s median prices have remained mostly steady over the last year or so. Studio apartments had a median rent of $2,625 per month; one-bedroom units had a median price of $3,275; and two-bedroom units clocked in at $3,495.
While Hell’s Kitchen doesn’t rank among the most prestigious neighborhoods in Manhattan, because of its superior strategic location in Midtown, along with its various culture offerings and diversity as well as comparatively affordable prices, it is likely to continue experiencing a growth in popularity, especially among the younger professionals and the LGBTQ community.
At the very least, it is expected that the Hell’s Kitchen real estate market should continue to remain stable in terms of both sales and rent prices
