Nearly 16,000 People Fled The Park Slope Area In 2020: Data

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — As the pandemic swept New York last year, residents fled Brooklyn in droves, including in Park Slope, according to a new study by the global real estate firm CBRE.

The study looked at 29 million change-of-address requests filed with the U.S. Postal Service last year, providing insight into which ZIP codes saw the most departures — and where residents went.

New York City, which was already shrinking before the pandemic, had the second-most net move-outs of any metro in the country in 2020, trailing only San Francisco, the study found. Meanwhile, Sun Belt cities like Austin and Charlotte saw population gains.

Within the city, dense, urbanized neighborhoods like Midtown, Lower Manhattan and Northern Brooklyn lost the most residents.

Across Park Slope's two major ZIP codes — which also cover Boerum Hill and parts of Gowanus and Prospect Heights — more than 15,800 people moved out in 2020, while about 12,100 moved in, a net loss of about 3,762 residents.

The number is far less than some Manhattan ZIP codes that saw the biggest exoduses, like the Upper East Side's net loss of 12,500 residents.

Nevertheless, it is a huge jump for the Park Slope area from previous years. In 2019, the net loss of residents didn't even break 1,000, according to the study.

Here is the 2020 move-out data for Park Slope ZIP codes:

• 11215: 7,215 move-ins, 9,139 move-outs — net loss of 1,924, or 28 per 1,000 people
• 11217: 4,898 move-ins, 6,736 move-outs — net loss of 1,838, or 44 per 1,000 people

The 11217 ZIP code, which includes a northern slice of Park Slope and Boerum Hill, had one of the highest rates of net loss per 1,000 people in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Heights' 11201 ZIP code saw the highest in the borough, with 50 per 1,000 people leaving in 2020.

Most people who moved last year went only a short distance, often to a nearby county, the researchers found. Many of them were affluent young adults who had no children and were able to work remotely.

"The outflow from urban areas likely will subside as normal life resumes and lower rents lure back some who had moved out," they wrote.

Rent and housing prices in Brooklyn have dropped at slower rates than parts of New York City, partly because of Manhattanites moving into the outer boroughs. Still, rent and homes are cheaper in 2021 than they were this time last year.