ZIP 11201

Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO & Downtown Brooklyn

Landmark brownstones, new towers, no car: Manhattan paychecks, just across the river

Median household income: $173,136 (Brooklyn $80,263; US $80,734 (2020–2024))
Typical home value: $1.37M (Brooklyn $959K; US $369K (Aug 2026))
Typical asking rent: $4,679/mo (NYC $4,154; US $1,948 (Aug 2026))
Population density: 51,482/sq mi (Brooklyn 39,438; NYC 29,301)
Bachelor's degree or higher: 79.9% (Brooklyn 42.1%; US 35.7%)
Households with no car: 68.0% (Brooklyn 56.4%; US 8.4%)

Overview

11201 is three neighborhoods on 1.35 sq mi of land at the Brooklyn end of the Brooklyn Bridge: the brownstone grid of Brooklyn Heights, landmarked in 1965; the converted warehouses of DUMBO; and the glass towers of Downtown Brooklyn. Its 69,703 residents live at 51,482 people per sq mi, denser than Brooklyn's 39,438. They are far more credentialed than the country as a whole: 79.9% of adults 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree and 42.0% a graduate degree, against 35.7% and 14.1% nationally.

Money is the defining fact. Median household income is $173,136, more than double Brooklyn's $80,263, and the average tax return reports $278,003 of income; 46.5% of returns report capital gains or losses, against 18.9% nationally. Housing is priced to match: The typical home is valued at $1.37M and typical asking rent is $4,679 a month, against $959K and $3,867 for Brooklyn. Only 35.9% of households own their home, so most rent. Even after adjusting for metro price levels, the median household income is worth $153,813, close to twice the US $80,734.

Daily life runs on foot and on rails. 68.0% of households own no car, only 5.9% of workers drive alone to work and 44.4% take transit, with 11 subway services stopping in the ZIP. Nearly two-thirds of employed residents (65.4%) work in Manhattan, while 97.7% of the 74,906 jobs located here, led by public administration (23.8%) and education (14.5%), are held by people who live elsewhere. Restaurants and gyms are unusually dense: 280 places to eat and drink and 27.5 gyms per sq mi, against 68.9 and 3.47 across Brooklyn.

Change is fast and uneven. Population grew 46.0% from 2000 to 2020, and the housing stock has expanded another 23.7% (8,644 net units) since 2020, about three times the Brooklyn pace of 7.6%. Values have slipped while rents have not: The typical home value is 18.7% below its April 2017 peak and down 11.8% over five years, even as typical asking rents rose 34.1%. Retail is softer than the borough: storefront vacancy rose from 10.3% at the end of 2019 to 14.5% at the end of 2024, while Brooklyn's fell from 9.9% to 8.0%. The long-run risk is water. 46.1% of the land lies in a hurricane evacuation zone, Hurricane Sandy accounts for 96.8% of all federal flood-insurance payouts here, and a mid-range federal projection puts high-tide flooding at the nearby Battery tide gauge at 85 days a year by the 2050s, against 8 in the past year.

Identity & geography

51,482 residents per sq mi of land (2020) — 1.3× Kings County (Brooklyn) and 549× the US average; #79 densest of 23,003 US ZIPs with 1,000+ people (#15 in the county).
USPS now delivers to 42,978 residential addresses — +18% vs the 36,448 housing units counted in the 2020 Census — on 45 carrier routes out of one station (Cadman Plaza).
Just 1.91 residents per housing unit in 2020 vs 2.54 county-wide and 2.36 nationally (vacant units included).

People & demographics

About 52,199 residents per sq mi of land — 1.4× Kings County's density and about 550× the US average.
Two flat decades, then a boom: 45,226 residents in 1980 and 47,746 in 2000, then 69,703 in 2020 — +46% over 2000–2020 alone (New York City: +10%) and +54% since 1980, vs +23% for Brooklyn.
Households average 1.96 people — vs 2.56 in Kings County and 2.53 nationally.

Income, wealth & cost of living

Median household income is $173,136 — 2.2× Kings County ($80,263) and 2.1× the US median ($80,734).
32.2% of tax returns filed here in 2022 reported income of $200,000+ (US: 7.9%), and those returns account for 79.9% of all income reported in the ZIP.
Average income per tax return rose from $142,766 (2011) to $278,003 (2022) — +95% vs +59% nationally (nominal).

Housing & real estate

Price signals diverge: the typical home value ($1.37M) is 11.8% below five years ago and 18.7% under its Apr 2017 peak, yet typical 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom values rose 18–25% over the same five years and the city's median recorded residential sale rose from $1.18M (2021) to $1.35M (2025).
60% of the ZIP's 3,326 tax lots lie inside an NYC historic district; the Brooklyn Heights Historic District alone accounts for 1,246 lots.
17,220 net new homes were completed here since 2010 — equal to 37% of today's 46,762 residential units — and another 3,032 are in planned buildings.

Economy, jobs & business

74,906 jobs are located in ZIP 11201 — 1.9 per employed resident (county: 0.73) — and 97.7% of them are held by people who live elsewhere.
65.4% of employed residents work in Manhattan (New York County) — and only 4.5% work inside the ZIP itself.
6.5% of working residents are in legal occupations (US 1.2%) and 10.4% in arts, design & media (US 2.1%); 34.2% mainly work from home vs 15.1% nationally.

Places, food & culture

28.0% of the ZIP's area lies inside NYC-designated historic districts, and its 2,313 landmark-protected buildings/lots are 5.9% of all 39,363 such records citywide.
280 restaurants, cafés, bars and fast-food places per sq mi — vs 68.9 for Brooklyn as a whole and 57.0 citywide (same map data); there are 7.38 Starbucks per sq mi vs 0.49 Brooklyn-wide.
93.8% of graded restaurants hold a current A, vs 90.2% in Brooklyn and 89.3% citywide; 15 establishments were closed by the health department at least once in the past 12 months.

Transport & mobility

68.0% of households in 11201 have no car — vs 56.4% in Brooklyn and 8.4% nationally (0.36 vehicles per household).
11 daytime subway services (2 3 4 5 A B C F G Q R) stop at 9 station complexes inside the ZIP; trains make 7,509 scheduled station stops here every weekday.
Jay St-MetroTech averaged 27,859 weekday entries (Oct 2025–Sep 2026) and ranks #27 of 428 NYC subway complexes by total entries; the ZIP's stations together handle 117,817 entries per weekday — 2.87% of all subway entries over the 12 months.

Schools & education

Public schools located here teach 1.9× as many K-12 students as there are public K-12 students living in the ZIP — at least 48% of their students come from elsewhere.
10 elementary school zones slice up the ZIP, and they are not alike: P.S. 8: 86% vs P.S. 307: 22% of students proficient in reading and English (2026) — a 65-point gap between two zones that share a border.
62% of tested students in the ZIP's DOE-run public schools met the reading and English standard in 2026 (vs 50% citywide); in math 65% (vs 57%).

Health & healthcare

Only 3.1% of residents are uninsured vs 5.8% in Kings County and 8.4% nationally; 11.8% have Medicaid vs 38.8% county-wide, while 83.7% hold private coverage.
Life expectancy in Brooklyn Community District 2 (Fort Greene & Brooklyn Heights, about 90% of 11201 residents) is 86.1 years (2013–2022 pooled) vs 81.5 for New York City (2022); deaths before 65 from drug use run 13.4 per 100k vs 22.3 citywide — yet 2010–15 estimates for census tracts inside the ZIP differ by up to 14.3 years.
9.8 physicians practice here per 1,000 residents, vs 3.1 in Kings County and 3.8 nationally — consistent with a medical hub serving a wider area.

Safety, 311 & city services

112 crime complaints per 1,000 residents in 12 months — 1.7× the NYC rate (67); Downtown Brooklyn's daytime crowds inflate per-resident rates.
Using FBI definitions, 11201 logged 635 violent crimes in 12 months — 9.0 per 1,000 residents vs 5.5 citywide and 3.2 nationally; property crime runs 36.3 per 1,000, 1.9× the NYC rate.
Ambulances reach 11201 in a median 9:19 vs 10:45 citywide; fire units reach structural fires in 4:24 (NYC 4:27).

Air, water & green space

Only 63.8% of 2025 days had 'Good' air (233 of 365) in Kings County, versus 74.4% in the median US county with 300+ days of AQI data; PM2.5 drove the AQI on all 365 days because the county has no ozone monitor.
The nearest fine-particle (PM2.5) monitor (Division Street, 1.4 mi away) averaged 10.1 µg/m³ in 2025, above the 9.0 µg/m³ annual standard and the 7.4 µg/m³ US median monitor (EPA flags that year's record as incomplete). Satellite smoke maps drew wildfire smoke over the ZIP on 67 days a year in 2016–2025 (3.0 heavy-density days a year; peak 2023: 161 days, 13 heavy).
The Gowanus Canal Superfund site lies 0.2 mi from the ZIP's edge. New York State lists 21 remediation program records inside 11201 (12 Brownfield Cleanup, 5 Voluntary Cleanup, 4 State Superfund) at about 14 distinct properties; 4 are still active.

Weather & climate

Nights are where the warming shows: Central Park now gets 48.7 nights a year that stay at 70°F or warmer (2016–2025), up from 30.4 in 1951–1980, while freezing nights fell from 77.6 to 58.4.
Hot days have not climbed yet — 18.0 days a year at 90°F+ in 2016–2025 vs 18.3 in 1951–1980 — but climate models put Kings County at 34.5 such days a year in the 2050s (Moderate emissions), vs 19.6 modeled for the 2010s.
The harbor at The Battery, across the East River, has risen about 0.12 in a year since 1856, 19.1 in in all; the record water level, 8.99 ft above the average daily high tide on Oct 30, 2012, was Hurricane Sandy.

Natural hazards & resilience

Hurricane Sandy (2012) accounts for 97% of the $13.56M in federal flood-insurance claims ever paid in 11201: 22 claims averaging $597K each.
46% of the ZIP's land is inside an NYC hurricane evacuation zone (12.8% in Zone 1, evacuated first), and storm-surge modeling shows 36% could be inundated in a worst-case hurricane — yet only 174 federal flood-insurance policies (covering 1,363 insured units, mostly via condo master policies) are in force.
FEMA's 100-year floodplain covers 7.6% of the land on the effective (2007) flood map; NYC's future-floodplain maps (2013 federal flood maps plus projected sea-level rise) put 16.5% in the 2050s and 21.1% by 2100.

Internet, energy & infrastructure

FCC data show fiber offered at 100.0% of the ZIP's 3,193 mapped broadband locations (US: 61.8%), though that rests on business-fiber provider Lightpath — Verizon Fios reaches 52.1%; 12 wired/fixed-wireless providers report service here, 6 of them over fiber.
Home broadband Speedtests averaged 417.6 Mbps down / 205.2 up in Q2 2026 (Kings County, NY: 379.3 Mbps, US: 383.7) — up from 135.8 Mbps in Q1 2019.
Con Edison full-service households paid an average 36.7¢/kWh in 2025 — 2.1× the US average (17.2¢) and above the New York average (26.4¢); it was 27.0¢ in 2013.

Politics & government

Harris won 89.7% here in 2024 (Brooklyn 70.4%, state 55.9%), down from Biden's 92.5% in 2020: the margin moved 4.7 points toward Trump, less than Brooklyn's 11.6 or the state's 10.5.
In the June 2025 Democratic primary Mamdani led round one here with 44.7%, Lander was second with 26.2% (vs 11.3% citywide) and Cuomo third with 19.8%; Mamdani won the final round 69.7% to 30.3% (city: 56.4%).
Mamdani took 67.8% in 2025 — 17.0 points above his citywide 50.8%; Cuomo 29.1%, Sliwa 2.0%.

News, pulse & history

Downtown Brooklyn was named in 111 Brooklyn Paper articles in the last 12 months - #8 of 18 Brooklyn neighborhoods, behind Williamsburg (177).
189 of Brooklyn Paper's 1,968 articles (9.6%) mentioned Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO, Downtown Brooklyn or Cobble Hill in the past year; since Oct 2024 the busiest month was Dec 2024 (23 articles naming Brooklyn Heights, DUMBO or Downtown Brooklyn), and that count changed +5% year over year while the outlet's total output changed -13%.
Wikipedia's "Brooklyn Heights" article drew 147,952 human views in the last 12 months - #5 of 24 Brooklyn neighborhood articles (#1: Coney Island, 326,616). Views of the ZIP's 6 neighborhood articles changed -5% year over year vs -16% for the other neighborhoods.