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April 22, 2022 • Schneps Media
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The Rent Guidelines Board
has recommended allowing
significantly higher rent
increases on rent-regulated apartments
this year than have been
allowed for more than a decade.
The board, which sets the rates
at which landlords can raise rents
in the city’s nearly 1 million regulated
units, recommended increases
of between 2.7 and 4.5 percent for
one-year leases and 4.3 to 9 percent
for two-year leases. That’s well
above the rates seen throughout the
de Blasio administration: increases
never topped 1.5 percent for oneyear
leases or 2.75 percent for twoyear
leases during the previous mayor’s
tenure, and rents were frozen in
multiple years.
The proposed rate increases are
not final: the board is set to hold
a series of public meetings in the
coming months to hear perspective
from both landlords and tenants,
and will hold a final vote on rate
increases in June.
However, the proposed rates
seem to reflect optimism from landlords
that the Eric Adams administration
will usher in a new era of
REAL ESTATE
owner-friendly governance. Adams’
appointees to the board have included
Arpit Gupta, an economist
at the conservative Manhattan Institute
who has previously voiced
skepticism of rent regulation.
Landlords contend that their costs
have gone up significantly in recent
years but haven’t been able to raise
rents in tandem; RGB executive director
Andrew McLachlan said in a
presentation on Thursday that labor,
fuel, utilities, maintenance, administration,
and insurance have all shot
up this year, with fuel and insurance
seeing particular upswings, though
taxes have decreased.
“It can’t be understated that
across the board, increases are up,”
said Christina Smyth, a landlord rep
on the board appointed by Adams.
“We’re just simply trying to maintain
equilibrium here at the board,
we’re not trying to hit home runs for
either side, we’re just trying to cover
expenses and keep it level.”
But the proposed increases for
rent-stabilized tenants come as their
market-rate brethren are facing massive
increases, often hundreds of
dollars, after a brief pandemic-era
dip, and as evictions resume in New
York following the expiration of the
eviction moratorium. Landlords are
filing so many evictions in housing
court that there are not enough lawyers
to represent all of the bounced
tenants, as required by city law,
though the court says that that is not
their problem and is continuing to
hear cases anyway.
Wages have in recent decades
not kept up with inflation in costof
living, especially when it comes
to housing. New York City residents
are also heavily rent-burdened,
meaning they spend a high percentage
of their income on their rent:
42 percent of New Yorkers were
spending more than 30 percent of
their income on rent in 2017, with
23 percent spending more than 50
percent, per city data.
Advocates and pols responded
with dismay to the
board’s recommendations.
“With rents already skyrocketing,
working-class families will have
to find thousands of extra dollars
just to stay in their homes,” the City
Council’s Progressive Caucus said
in a statement. “We need solutions
that protect tenants & address the
affordability crisis in our City.”
The mayor’s office declined
to comment.
BY MYRIAN GARCIA
If you plan on home
buying in New York
City, it’s time to start
getting serious now.
According to Street-
Easy, last April, 5,691
sellers listed their homes
on the NYC market, making
it the most popular
month to list. While many
homes are available for
purchase, the fear of cost
and time inefficiencies
begin to loom.
StreetEasy is known
to be the easiest way to
rent, buy and now sell
in New York City. With
its easy-to-understand
and user-friendly website,
StreetEasy provides
quick and easy access to
the housing market. Their
services also include a
blog where home experts
share tips and pieces of
advice on home-ownership in
such a large city.
Buying and selling homes in
New York City is complicated.
One must take into consideration
A New York City stoop
the neighborhood, building
history and so much more. Casey
Roberts, a StreetEasy home
trends expert, compiled a list
of four avoidable mistakes commonly
made when buying and
selling in the city.
First of all, people generally
fail to hire agents with hyperlocal
experience. While it may
seem to be more cost-efficient
to hire someone’s cousin’s best
friend, it is crucial to choose
the person with the right expertise
in the specific area and
type of home one is shopping
for. StreetEasy pairs buyers with
experts based on neighborhood,
price point, and property type
– ensuring they are best suited
to add value.
A second common mistake is
forgetting to put finances above
all else. Finance includes a lack
of pre-approval for a loan before
beginning to shop. Additionally,
people commonly fail by setting
an unrealistic budget for a
PHOTO VIA GETTY IMAGES
city apartment. Too many buyers
set a budget without thinking
of city-specific closing costs,
maintenance costs, and how they
differ between condos, co-ops
and townhouses.
Thirdly, most people ignore
and underutilize real-time alerts.
City real estate moves quickly. In
NYC, homes are coming off the
market one month faster than
last year and spending an average
of just 88 days on the market.
Tech platforms like StreetEasy
allow buyers access to real-time
notifications of new homes that
fit their criteria as soon as they
hit the market to help them find
and win their home faster than
the competition.
Finally, a common mistake
people make in the city is not
making an offer that fits today’s
quickly changing market. It is
easy to make the mistake of insufficient
research and making
an offer that may have seemed
reasonable last year, but it is a
different story given the postpandemic
hot market. An experienced
local agent can help you
put together a competitive offer
beyond just the offer price.
PHOTO BY PAUL FRANGIPANE
Advocates hang banners calling to cancel rent in Downtown Brooklyn on August 5, 2020
Looking to own? Avoid
these all-too-common
home-buying mistakes
Rents going up
Guidelines Board recommends significant
increases for stabilized apartments