Metro

Brooklyn nabe of Prospect Heights has ‘richest’ look

Prospect Heights is the Big Apple’s richest-looking neighborhood, according to a new study that asked non-New Yorkers to rate neighborhoods based on Google Street View images.

The brownstone-lined neighborhood ranked No. 1 on a list of “perceived” affluence compiled by MIT researchers.

It topped more than 50 other neighborhoods, including the Upper East Side and Midtown.

Neighbors think they know why.

“There’s so many trees and flower gardens everywhere. I think it looks like a very expensive neighborhood,” said Claire Ramos, a 30-year-old yoga instructor.

All that green makes it seem worth more green, but 2010 Census figures show the median household income for Prospect Heights was $83,299 compared with $118,380 for the Upper East Side.

“If I wasn’t from here . . . I would think it was an impossible place to live unless you were extremely wealthy. Thank goodness it’s not that expensive!”

On the flipside, hipster-heavy Greenpoint came in as the poorest-looking neighborhood, followed by fellow Brooklyn neighborhoods East New York and Canarsie, according to the study.

Researchers at MIT’s Media Lab program asked thousands of people online to compare dozens of street images around the city then note which ones look most wealthy, safe and dangerous.

They then crunched numbers to compile “class rank” and “safety rank” of neighborhoods in New York City, Boston and Salzburg, Austria.

Their goal was to compare “perception of safety” vs. actual safety based on visual cues and crime stats.

It found that people are generally right about their snap judgments about rich and poor areas.

Midtown East was ranked second most wealthy-looking, the Upper East Side placed third, followed by Forest Hills in Queens.

In Prospect Heights — where the average value of a home sold in the second quarter of this year was $735,000 — residents suspect architecture helped the ’hood place so high.

“It’s clean and quiet and the buildings have a lot of character. I’ve lived here a decade and absolutely love it. Brooklyn is great!” said Dan Carlyle, a 52-year-old interior designer.

“I was in Manhattan for years before I came here and this area is so much better,” he said.

The survey takes into account data gathered over more than two years, based on a Web tool created by MIT professor César A. Hidalgo.

Richest looking:

1. Prospect Heights

2. Midtown East

3. Upper East Side

Poorest looking:

1. Greenpoint

2. East New York

3. Canarsie

Safest looking:

1. Prospect Heights

2. Midtown East

3. Forest Hills

Most dangerous looking:

1. Greenpoint

2. East New York

3. Brighton Beach