How Old Are NYC's Buildings? Year Built by Borough

New York City's homes are old. Half of the 3,716,621 residential units with a known year built in the city's tax lot data sit in buildings completed by 1941, and 48% are in buildings finished before 1940. The 1920s alone produced 696,066 of today's units, more than any other decade. Staten Island is the newest borough by median year built; Brooklyn has the largest share of prewar housing.

How we counted

The data comes from PLUTO, the Department of City Planning's file of every tax lot in the city, version 26v2. We kept the 767,563 lots that have at least one residential unit, grouped them by borough and year built, and summed their residential units. A unit-weighted median answers the question "by what year had half of today's apartments and houses been built?" We left out 803 lots (20,024 units) whose year built is recorded as 0, which PLUTO uses for unknown.

One important caveat up front: PLUTO says year built is generally accurate for the decade but not the exact year. Between 1910 and 1985 most values end in 0 or 5, and many 1800s and early 1900s buildings are recorded as 1899 to 1901. So read the charts below by decade, not by year.

The 1920s built the city we live in

The tallest column is the 1920s, with 696,066 units, or 18.7% of all units with a known year. Queens and Brooklyn account for most of it: 165,300 and 207,821 units respectively. The 1930s (465,960) and the 1960s (407,698) are the next largest. The 1940s show a sharp dip, to 200,855.

After the 1960s, building drops off. The 1980s and 1990s added the fewest units of any decade since 1900: 122,826 and 80,784. Production picked up again after 2000, with 217,071 units dating to the 2000s and 210,081 to the 2010s. The 2020s column covers only 2020 through 2026 so far, and already counts 157,463 units.

Borough by borough

Brooklyn: the most prewar housing

Brooklyn has 632,298 units in buildings finished before 1940, 57% of its total and the highest share of any borough. It also has the most units recorded as built before 1900: 68,744 units on 25,377 lots. Yet Brooklyn also has the highest share of new housing, with 18% of units in buildings finished in 2000 or later.

Manhattan: old lots, taller new buildings

In Manhattan the median lot was built in 1910, but the median unit in 1940. The gap exists because newer Manhattan buildings hold far more apartments each. Manhattan's pre-1900 stock is 56,852 units on 8,661 lots, an average of about 7 units per lot.

Queens and the Bronx: 1920s and postwar

Queens has a median unit year of 1950, and the 1920s are its biggest decade (165,300 units). It also has a large postwar layer: 412,007 units date from 1940 to 1999. The Bronx median is 1942, with 151,635 units from the 1920s, its biggest decade.

Staten Island: the newest borough

Staten Island's median unit was built in 1970, two decades later than Queens (1950), the next newest borough, and only 20% of its units predate 1940. Its biggest decade for housing that still stands was the 1970s (29,591 units), followed by the 1980s (25,737).

The full table

Why building age matters to renters and buyers

Age changes which rules apply. Under NYC Local Law 1 of 2004, owners of apartment buildings with three or more units built before 1960, and of rented units in one- and two-family homes built before 1960, must presume the paint is lead-based unless testing shows it is not. Their duty to find and fix hazards centers on units where a child under six routinely spends 10 or more hours a week. Buildings from 1960 to 1977 are covered if the owner knows there is lead paint. In this data, 63% of the city's units are in buildings finished before 1960. See lead paint rights for NYC tenants.

Older buildings are not automatically worse, and newer ones are not automatically better. Age is a starting point. The building's own record (open violations, complaints, permits) tells you more. Look up any address on Roofy's NYC building lookup, and read how to read a building page or the checklist for vetting a building before you rent.

Limits of this data

For how the same housing splits between houses, walk-ups and elevator buildings, see NYC housing stock by building type. To decode PLUTO itself, read PLUTO data fields explained.