Staten Island's Sandy buyout lots are becoming affordable homes. The first 15 will sell for $293,000 to $466,000

Fourteen years after Hurricane Sandy flooded Staten Island's East Shore, lots the city bought from storm-damaged owners are being turned into homes that working New Yorkers can buy. The first batch, 15 newly built homes in Midland Beach and South Beach, will be sold through a city housing lottery, and the city has lined up the same nonprofit developer for 12 more in New Dorp Beach and Great Kills, SILive reported this week.

The first 15 homes: prices and who qualifies

The project's official site, Resilient Homes Staten Island, lists seven one-family and eight two-family homes, with one to three bedrooms. They are elevated, with living space and utilities raised above ground level. Estimated prices, which HPD still has to approve, are:

• One-family: two 1-bedroom homes at $293,111–$303,649 (100% of area median income); three 3-bedroom homes at $426,658–$430,854 (100% AMI); two 3-bedroom homes at $357,552–$358,698 (90% AMI).
• Two-family (owner unit plus a rental unit of the same size): a 1-bedroom pair at $355,136 and a 2-bedroom pair at $436,055 (100% AMI); three 2-bedroom pairs at $359,782–$389,049 and three 3-bedroom pairs at $454,401–$465,815 (90% AMI).

Buyers must be first-time homeowners: no one in the household can own or have owned a home or co-op shares. The site estimates a minimum down payment of 5% and says buyers will need a mortgage that meets program rules. Because public money lowered the price, each home stays under affordability and occupancy rules for 20 years.

How to apply

Applications will go through NYC Housing Connect, and the site says the lottery is "opening soon," with the deadline and final eligibility rules in the official ad. Free information sessions will be scheduled. There is no application fee, households may submit only one application, and joining the project's inquiry list does not affect your lottery position. See our Housing Connect how-to guide for setting up an account before the lottery opens.

New Dorp Beach and Great Kills are next

The city has partnered with Queens-based nonprofit Urban Ecospaces on 10 homes in New Dorp Beach and two in Great Kills, at 208 and 214 Wiman Ave., SILive reported. New Dorp Beach sites include 477 Mill Road and lots on Seafoam Street, Winham Avenue, Wavecrest Street, Center Place, Topping Street, Marine Way and Cedar Grove Avenue. Plans have been filed with the Department of Buildings, but work has not started, and unit counts are not final. At 101 Cedar Grove Ave., listed for 20 units on the mayor's LIFT land tracker, an HPD spokesperson told SILive only two units are planned, with construction summer 2027 at the earliest.

A city-sponsored nonprofit, Project Rebuild, bought the lots about five years after Sandy for roughly $300,000 each, and HPD took them over in 2022, SILive reported in 2024. The homes are part of HPD's Open Door homeownership program.