LAS VEGAS — Ranking No. 2 and No. 4, respectively, Jersey City and Brooklyn are both among the Top 5 markets to watch in terms of overall real estate prospects, according to the Emerging Trends in Real Estate 2026 report, which is jointly produced every year by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) and accounting firm PwC. Pittsburgh was the only other Northeastern market to crack the Top 10, coming in at No. 7.
Jersey City, which benefits from immediate proximity to Manhattan, has a massive amount of multifamily product in development, such that overall apartment inventory has increased by 20 percent over the past five years, according to the report. The market has effectively positioned itself as a low[er]-cost alternative for people who work in Manhattan but cannot afford to live there. As such, Jersey City boasts a robust population of well-educated residents with relatively high levels of disposable income. Along with its ease of connectivity to the country’s business and financial hub, these attributes contributed to the ranking.
Brooklyn similarly offers a healthy contingent of sophisticated, high-earning laborers to accompany more cultured and eclectic lifestyles versus Manhattan. And according to the report, the borough’s office vacancy rate of 17.9 percent is relatively unchanged compared to January 2020, a benchmark date that marks the phasing out of office space due to the pandemic. Brooklyn also has a sub-2 percent multifamily vacancy rate and is experiencing strong rent growth — 3.2 percent year-over-year in the second quarter of 2025 — per the report. That is nearly triple the national average of 1.2 percent at the time.