Mariah Fredericks is always ahead of the curve.

The teen book author moved to Carroll Gardens in 1990 when the neighborhood was first becoming stylish. Two years ago, when she decided to buy an apartment in the neighborhood, prices had risen so much that “all we could find was a crummy two-bedroom for $500,000,” the author of “The True Meaning of Cleavage” said.

So, like a growing number of Brooklynites who are being driven out by high prices, Ms. Fredericks moved with her husband and dog to a hot spot for gentrification: the Jackson Heights Historic District. There, she bought a four-bedroom, pre-war cooperative apartment with a working fireplace for “under half a million,” she said.

In an area known for Indian food and with a lingering reputation for crime, a growing number of young couples who have been priced out of Brooklyn and Manhattan are snatching up pre-war co-op apartments that come standard with working fireplaces, gardens, and 9-foot ceilings. “We are getting a lot of couples in their 30s who have heard through the grapevine about the housing stock,” a real estate broker who is a native of Jackson Heights, Daniel Karatzas, said. “It was a gradual thing, but lately it has been like a torrent.”

Accessible via the E, F, G, R,V, and 7 subway lines, the historic district is bounded by Northern Boulevard and Roosevelt Avenue, and 69th and 91st streets. The neighborhood was built as a “garden city” by the developer Edward MacDougall.

“A garden city is a privately built, privately owned city that does not grow out of an earlier settlement,” the president of the Jackson Heights Garden City Society, Jeffrey Saunders, said.

After a visit to Europe in 1914, where garden cities were popular, Mac-Dougall, as head of the Queensboro Corporation, bought more than 300 acres of farmland in Queens to realize his vision. The block-long, five- and six story buildings he built, mostly between 1917 and the 1950s, are known for their hidden courtyards, where old dogwoods and elm trees, dramatic Greek columns, and fountains can be found. The buildings are set back from the street to allow for garden plantings in the front yard and boulevard sidewalks, and they have no visible fire escapes. The apartments have four exposures, with large living and dining rooms in the front, hiding multiple bedrooms in the back. Most boast parquet floors, molded windows and doors, and butler’s pantries.

Selling for as much as $25,000 in the 1920s, the apartments, with only two per floor, were targeted at the newly emerging college-educated class. Residents included actors and musicians as well as managers of businesses, with the likes of Alfred Butts, the inventor of Scrabble; Broadway stage personality Blanche Ring; and Clayton “Bud” Collier, the first radio Superman, calling Jackson Heights home.

“This area was like a mini Central Park South in its heyday,” said Mr. Karatzas, who is the author of “Jackson Heights: A Garden in the City,” published by the neighborhood civic group, the Jackson Heights Beautification Group. “The housing stock was built to a much higher standard than in other neighborhoods in Queens, like Astoria or Bayside,” he said. “When people are looking to upsize and can’t afford Brooklyn prices, this is the best alternative.”

“It is wonderful here, safe and affordable,” said Ms. Fredericks, 39, as she pushed a cart filled with her books down 80th Street to the local bookstore. Her apartment is in the Towers, one of the neighborhood’s fanciest buildings, with spiraled towers, wooden doors, and griffins guarding the gates into the garden courtyard.

“You can get so much more for your money here,” said Kirsten Nash, 40, an artist who moved from Park Slope into an apartment next door to Ms. Fredericks. Ms. Nash and her husband renovated their apartment with the money they saved by moving to the neighborhood. “I don’t have any plans of leaving,” she said.

The garden city buildings are almost all cooperatives, with a handful of rental buildings. They were the first modern cooperatives in New York, according to Mr. Saunders. Before MacDougall built his garden city, the only other co-ops were developments for the very wealthy on Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue. The Queensboro Corporation intended its buildings for those who could not afford to live on Park Avenue but did not want to live in the tenement buildings pervasive at the time.

“Most of the modern co-op rules we have today were made for the co-ops in Jackson Heights,” Mr. Saunders said, adding it was the site of the first co-op conversion from a rental building.

One-bedroom pre-war apartments in the neighborhood sell for between $170,000 and $250,000, two-bedroom units cost up to $400,000, and larger apartments run up to $650,000, Mr. Karatzas said. Apartments in postwar buildings cost slightly less, depending on the building.

A recent listing in the Towers, which was built in 1924, went into contract for a little under $600,000. The 1,500-square foot, three-bedroom unit was on the market for two months before a couple from the Upper East Side snatched it up, Mr. Karatzas said.

The co-ops have low maintenance charges – between $550 and $800 for a two-bedroom apartment – but also have no reserve funds. This means that if a problem with the building arises, such as a busted boiler, residents must pay for the improvements out of pocket immediately. It also means that the co-ops often require buyers to put down 20% to 40% of the purchase price.

“For a two-bedroom that costs $500,000, it is not uncommon to be asked to put down $175,000,” Mr. Karatzas said.

And while violence in the neighborhood is not unknown, public schools in the area are improving. According to city records, a number outperform city averages on the statewide English and math tests.

“People move to Jackson Heights because they want a sense of urbanity – all-night grocery stores for example – while also having lots of street trees and gardens,” Mr. Saunders said. “This is a place that is recognizable and comfortable for transplants from Manhattan and Brooklyn, but maintains a strong residential vibe.”