Staten Island may soon be as well known for its sushi as its pizza.

The number of Japanese restaurants in the borough have tripled in the last four years, by one observer’s estimate. And some of the new eateries, like the Fushimi Restaurant and Lounge, aren’t even Japanese owned.

“It’s really a big trend now,” Joey Tse, Fushimi’s Chinese owner, said of the sushi boom.

According to a new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the Washington, DC-based Urban Land Institute, New York City ranks as the top domestic market to watch in 2008 because of its strength. Although the city continues to have one of the tightest real estate markets in the country, some neighborhoods, such as Jamaica, Queens are being hit hard with foreclosures. More »