From the sophistication of Striver's Row and multimillion-dollar developments to the boarded-up buildings seemingly wasting away, the state of the Harlem real estate market remains an open question, the answer to which varies widely depending on the source.

Renowned Harlem real estate expert Willie Kathryn Suggs, often referred to as the "Queen of Harlem Real Estate," provided her perspective during a tour of an 1895-built Harlem home.

Though not currently for sale, Suggs estimated the five-story brownstone’s value at $2.5 million, offering historical context: “Going back to the 1890s, the people who lived here then were not Black. There were a couple scattered here and there, but the homes were built by and for European Americans.”

However, Harlem's demographic landscape shifted notably with the construction of the New York City subway in 1904, which made it easier for Black people looking for a better life to get to Harlem.

A door was then opened by struggling landlords trying to balance the books. That's when Black businessman Philip Anthony Payton Jr. made his name by actively promoting coming uptown.

"In some cases, the Blacks would have white friends or friends who looked white, and they would buy a house for them, and then the neighbors would find out, ‘Oh, that person is Black,’" Suggs said.

Thinking property values would go down and slums would pop-up, white people left in droves, while Black people were moving in from all over, escaping Jim Crow laws in the south and social injustice in the north. Through the years, Harlem became a mecca of Black culture, but the same can't be said for its real estate market.

“So, the prices fell, but there are always three pockets in Harlem that didn't really change: Hamilton Terrace, Convent Avenue, Strivers' Row— and then the blocks right around Mount Morris Park. They look exactly like they did 110 years ago,” said Suggs.

However, socioeconomic challenges emerged, particularly in the 1970s, prompting an exodus of affluent Black residents and leaving behind a community grappling with poverty and unemployment.

Census data from 1970 reflects a stark income disparity, with the median income of the neighborhood being just under $10,000. For Blacks, it was closer to $6,500. Meanwhile, crime was on the rise, drug use was rampant and abandoned tenements created a greater a sense of danger.

"You had all these empty buildings. Come to find out who owned the empty buildings: the city of New York. The City of New York owned 70% of the housing stock in Central Harlem in the 1980s," Suggs said.

Another seismic shift then came on July 30, 2001, when then-President Bill Clinton—under the urging of Rep. Charles Rangel—established an office on 125th Street in the heart of Harlem, vowing to promote economic activity.

While the move did create a rapid change seemingly overnight, it also caused commercial rents to skyrocket from $5 per square foot to $150 per square foot. And for many, it was a dramatic change for the worse.

"You saw a lot of Black-owned businesses fade," New York State Sen. Cordell Cleare said.

Cleare, along with other advocates, is now pushing for measures to roll back these prices.

"We've already been victims of redlining, discrimination and other things that have stood in the way of opportunity for the Black community, now to have this rapid gentrification and these unaffordable rents that only compounds a situation and just adds to those barriers," Cleare said.

Describing the current market as “very, very pricey,” she noted that many of the existing resident in the area, who have been there for generations, still cannot afford the pricing over 20 years later.

Cleare hopes to do something about the issue by pushing for accountability in government-sponsored initiatives, saying, “Any government-sponsored or state-sponsored credits need to have accountability attached to them, real accountability, and enforcement of that accountability. We cannot afford to give away tax dollars and not get the results that were intended to be gotten,” she said.

While Cleare's Senate Bill 35-66B calling for preservation of expiring affordable housing is still in committee, she believes the real answer is new public housing, which hasn't happened since Mitchell Lama in 1955. She noted that statewide, the average yearly income for a Black family is about $53,000, and in Harlem, it's $43,000.  

"We are in a housing crisis, an affordable housing crisis at this point, and when I use the word affordable, I'm using it in terms of the incomes of people, particularly Black people in this community," Cleare said.

Suggs agreed, emphasizing the large amount of income needed to afford even a studio apartment in New York City.

"The city is out of reach. For the average person, you need to make $80,000 a year to afford a studio in this town," Suggs said.

She said another facet of the issue is that some units are being purchased and   warehoused until a time when rent laws are more favorable to owners. This practice contributes to the stark contrast in pricing within Harlem, where properties just blocks apart can vary from the mid-hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

“So, houses are going to go up in value. And if you're saying, ‘Well, it should sell for less because Black people can't afford them.’ Excuse me—I know a whole bunch of rich Black people. They can buy anything they want,” Suggs said.

Though, while some embrace the wave of gentrification, others like Cleare express concerns about affordability.

"When you have rents that are averaging $2,500, $3,500, $4,500 a month, that's not sustainable. That's not affordable. We have to create something that people really can afford, that our city is not going to be just for the rich. Harlem cannot be just for the rich," Cleare said.