Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) -- Manhattan apartment prices in Uptown neighborhoods such as Harlem more than quadrupled over the last decade, outpacing the tripling of prices in the costlier Midtown and Downtown areas.

The median price of a condominium and cooperatively owned apartment north of West 116th Street and East 96th Street gained 349 percent to $305,490, according to a report released today by residential appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and real estate brokerage Prudential Douglas Elliman.

For the rest of Manhattan, including Midtown, Chelsea and Tribeca, the median grew 223 percent to $655,000. In comparison, the U.S. median price for a single-family home increased 67 percent over the decade to $184,100.

New Yorkers priced out of lower Manhattan are turning to the less desirable neighborhoods at the northern tip of the island instead of leaving the borough, Dorothy Herman, chief executive of Prudential Douglas Elliman, said in a telephone interview.

``The prices of everything else have made Harlem very attractive,'' Herman said. ``There's only so much land in Manhattan, so if you can't afford Park Avenue, you have to go northward.''

The median price for an Uptown one-bedroom apartment was $222,000 last year, making it more affordable than Midtown and Lower Manhattan, at $498,000. The median price of a three-bedroom apartment Uptown was $708,000, compared with $2.45 million in the southern neighborhoods, according to the report.

Uptown's Washington Heights neighborhood, located from West 155th Street to West 181st Street, saw its median price gain 713 percent to $325,000 from $40,000 a decade ago -- the biggest increase of any Manhattan area during the decade. In 2004, growth slowed as the median price rose 4.8 percent from a year earlier.

Inwood, at the northern tip of Manhattan, had the second- biggest 10-year increase. Its median grew 424 percent to $210,000 from $42,000 a decade ago. Last year, prices gained 13 percent.

Neighborhoods

In 2004, the combined area of Hamilton Heights and Morningside Heights had the biggest surge in price of all the Uptown neighborhoods, according to the report.

The median sale price between West 116th Street and West 155th Street gained 83 percent in 2004 from a year earlier. Over the last 10 years, the median grew 176 percent.

``That area is a natural extension northward of the Upper West Side, a neighborhood that over the last several years has been one of the strongest locations in terms of growth,'' Jonathan Miller, Miller Samuel's president, said in an interview. ``We're seeing development going northward along Broadway.''

In Harlem, from East 96th Street to West 155th Street, the median sale price jumped 417 percent to $309,940 in 10 years, 13 percent of that between 2003 and 2004.

Fort George, from West 181st Street to Dyckman Street, saw prices gain 325 percent to $340,000 in the last decade. In the last year alone, the gain was 35 percent.

`Perennial Shortage'

The population of Manhattan, a 23-square-mile island that forms one of New York City's five boroughs, grew by 3.3 percent to 1.54 million in the decade ended in 2000, while the number of housing units increased 1.7 percent to 798,144, according to the U.S. Census.

``There is a perennial shortage of housing in Manhattan,'' Miller said.

The average price per square foot for all of Manhattan rose to an all-time high of $767 last year, a gain of 137 percent from $324 a decade ago, according to the report.

For Midtown and Downtown, the price per square foot was $792, triple the $265 of a decade earlier. Uptown, the price per square foot was $343, a gain of 334 percent from the $79 seen 10 years ago.

In 2004 there were 8,653 apartment sales in the borough, a gain of 78 percent from a decade earlier. In 1999, a record 9,522 transactions were completed.

While Uptown price gains in the next decade probably won't match the last 10 years, they will continue to outpace Midtown and Downtown increases, Herman said.

``The people who will make the most money are people who bought there a few years ago, but you're still going to see a big jump going forward because of how low the prices are in comparison to the rest of Manhattan,'' Herman said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kathleen M. Howley in Boston at kmhowley@bloomberg.net