In Long Island City, the Seller Across the Table Changed in 2026

A year ago, Skyline Tower at 23-15 44th Drive had no resale listings. By the first half of 2026 it had 26, which made Queens' tallest condominium the single largest source of resale supply in Long Island City, according to Corcoran's first-half market report. Sponsor sales there were slow coming out of the pandemic, and the building has approached a sellout in recent years. Now its early owners are selling, at the same time as dozens of their neighbors across the neighborhood.

Most LIC condos for sale in 2026 belong to individuals who bought during the 2019 to 2021 new-development boom. The few developers still selling are pricing well above the market, because so little new product is left.

The Record Median Mostly Reflects Bigger Apartments

In the first half of 2026, Long Island City's overall median sale price rose 24% year over year to $1.156 million. The average reached $1.254 million. Both were all-time highs, per Corcoran. Over the same six months, closings fell to their slowest pace since 2019. The report attributes the price jump to a change in which apartments sold.

Read the table from the bottom up. The typical apartment that sold grew by roughly 200 square feet. Closings between $500,000 and $750,000 fell 68%, and sales above $2 million rose 25%, led by Skyline Tower resales that included the year's top sale to that point at $2.72 million. When larger homes make up more of the sales, the median rises even if the price of a square foot stays put. In the first half of 2026, it mostly did stay put.

New development pricing was the one exception. Corcoran found record sponsor pricing across the board, led by Vesta LIC, where the median closing was $1.55 million, about a third above the market-wide median. Vesta alone accounted for more than two-thirds of all sponsor closings.

Where the New Sellers Came From

Resale condos made up 55% of LIC closings in the first half of 2026, a seven-year high, and 70% of everything listed, a record. Corcoran attributes the surge to owners who bought during the 2019 to 2021 boom now putting their units back on the market.

Skyline Tower shows how that supply built up. In 2022, The Real Deal reported that 21% of Skyline buyers had offered their units for rent within six months of closing, against 9% of other LIC buyers the year before. Cash accounted for 27% of Skyline sales, compared with 17% elsewhere in the neighborhood. A building with that many owners who bought to rent was always likely to produce a large resale wave once those owners began to sell. Some exits came early. In 2023, The Real Deal covered the sale of penthouse PH302 for $2.3 million, about $2,300 a square foot, by Risland Holdings, which had acquired it a year earlier in a $161 million bulk purchase.

None of this explains why any one owner is selling in 2026, and no reporting we found links this year's listings to a specific motive. The pattern still matters for a buyer. A boom-era resale seller is an individual or small investor with their own cost basis and their own deadline. A sponsor is a developer working through an offering plan. Each one negotiates differently.

Why There Are So Few New Condos

The sponsor side of the market shrank for a reason that started in the rental market. ZD Jasper's Paragon at 45-40 Vernon Boulevard sits on a site whose earlier owners had planned a rental building of more than 200 units. The Real Deal reported that the project stalled after the 421-a tax break expired, which made rental projects that had not yet started hard to finance. ZD Jasper bought the site in 2024 for $47 million, and vice president Jasper Wu told the outlet that going condo was a "no-brainer."

QNS dated the Paragon sales launch to Thursday, September 17, 2026, and The Real Deal's report from that day said sales had launched that Wednesday. Kayla Lee of the sales team told The Real Deal that 30% of its 182 units were already in contract before launch. QNS described it as LIC's first new for-sale waterfront condominium in more than a decade. It reported 14 units offered at launch from $765,000 to $2.455 million, with occupancy expected as early as November. Across the full project, The Real Deal cited Marketproof figures ranging from $655,000 for a 400-square-foot studio to $4.7 million for a three-bedroom penthouse. The blended price works out to more than $1,700 a square foot, against a neighborhood average of $1,464.

The developer is open about the premium. "We're trying to price a bit above what everybody else is doing because we truly believe that this is a high-quality product," Wu told The Real Deal. The rest of the sponsor pipeline helps explain why. Per The Real Deal's September reporting:

• Vesta, inland from the water, has sold more than 70% of its 115 units.
• Radiant, beside Queensboro Plaza, has sold more than half of its 117 units. It also held roughly half of all remaining new-development inventory in the first half.
• The Greene at 45-30 Pearson Street, 129 units, is almost entirely sold out.
• Lucent 33 at 37-34 33rd Street, 64 units, is almost entirely sold out.
• Skyline Tower, about 800 units, has approached a sellout.

When there is that little new product left, a sponsor with a waterfront site has room to price above nearby resales. Older buildings show how far that pricing has moved. TF Cornerstone's The View at 46-30 Center Boulevard launched in 2008 at under $1,000 a square foot. Its units have recently sold for as much as $1,600 a square foot, according to Marketproof data cited by The Real Deal.

The Third Quarter Points the Other Way

The mix explanation fits the first half. The third quarter does not fit it as neatly. Brick Underground's October 8 summary of SERHANT's Q3 2026 data shows LIC condo closings up 8.7% year over year and 29.4% from spring. Average price per square foot rose 10.8% and the median price 10.4%, while the size of units sold was nearly unchanged.

With unit sizes flat, a jump in price per square foot that large cannot come from a change in mix. In the third quarter, prices appear to have actually risen. The reports don't explain why the trend changed between the two periods. Brown Harris Stevens' Q3 2026 Queens report covers a wider Northwest Queens area, of which LIC is one of nine neighborhoods. It shows average and median apartment prices each up 4% year over year, with activity down 11%. LIC's condo segment is firming faster than the region around it.

There is still room to negotiate in a market with this much supply. In Q2 2026, SERHANT counted 297 active LIC condo listings, up 7.2% year over year. Average days on market were 177, and the average discount was 5%. That discount is an average across all sellers. None of the reports we reviewed measures discounts on resale units separately from sponsor units.

What a Boom-Era Resale Asks of a Buyer

Buying from an individual owner in a recent LIC condo comes with checks a sponsor purchase does not.

1. Find out where the tax abatement stands. Many condos from this period were built under 421-a. Hero LIC and The Neighborly, both completed in 2020, are listed with 15-year abatements. Under HPD's schedule for the older 421-a program, a 15-year benefit gives 11 years at full exemption followed by four phase-out years. The length depends on location, when construction began, and affordability terms. Market analysts have warned that some asking prices already reflect the low taxes. The year a unit sits in its abatement schedule affects the carrying costs a buyer takes on, and the carrying costs a future buyer will see at resale.
2. Count how many units are listed in the same building. When 26 units in one tower are listed at once, as Skyline Tower's were in the first half, comparable sales come from the same floor plans. The seller usually knows exactly what the neighbor's unit is listed for.
3. Compare price per square foot with Paragon's. The newest waterfront project's blended price, above $1,700 a square foot, sits well above the neighborhood's going rate. Resale owners priced near that number are asking a buyer to pay new-construction prices for a unit that is five years old.
4. Expect the seller to be an investor. Skyline's 2022 numbers on rentals and cash purchases show how many early owners bought to hold. If a unit is rented, ask about the lease term, the occupancy date, and how the seller's timeline fits with yours.

The Supply Coming Later

The longer-run housing pipeline is larger. The City Council approved the OneLIC rezoning on November 12, 2025. It covers about 54 blocks and is projected to enable nearly 15,000 homes, including 4,350 permanently affordable homes. In July 2026, The Real Deal reported plans for The Orion, a roughly 980-unit Hunters Point South development with 658 affordable homes across three buildings. The reports give capacity and project details for both, but no delivery dates.

FAQ

Is Long Island City overpriced at its record median? The first-half 2026 median of $1.156 million mostly reflects larger units selling, since price per square foot barely moved. Third-quarter data shows genuine gains in price per square foot, so prices are firming. They are not just being pushed up by the mix of apartments sold.

Why are new condos priced so far above resales? There is very little new product left. The Greene and Lucent 33 are almost entirely sold out, Vesta is more than 70% sold, and Paragon is the first new for-sale waterfront condo in more than a decade, priced above $1,700 a square foot on a blended basis.

Do resale sellers negotiate more than sponsors? The reports we reviewed don't break discounts out by seller type. In Q2 2026, the average LIC discount across all sellers was 5%, and resale inventory has since grown into most of the market.

Comparing a boom-era resale with a sponsor unit means looking at the full picture, from where the abatement stands to how many matching floor plans are listed in the same building. The Globalist Group helps condo buyers in Long Island City and across New York City through those comparisons, and coordinates the legal, financing, and building review behind each offer. Work With Us.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.