Expensive Rents in NYC | Domino Factory Redevelopment | HPD Moves Against Bad Landlords

(credit: Dave Sanders, The New York Times)

1. Check out this depressing rental market infographic. The Furman Center at NYU, along with Capital One, released yet another rental market report last week, and guess what? Renting an apartment in New York City is still a stupid thing that only an insane person would do. The report essentially details the relationship between rent and income (yes,again), and of course, the findings are pretty bleak. [Curbed NY – 04/27/14]
2. City council reaches deal on Domino factory redevelopment. The committee reached a deal to allow the construction of new residential and commercial towers at the old factory site late Thursday afternoon, after a lengthy negotiation. Under the new agreement, the development’s affordable housing will only be leased to tenants who make 70 percent or less of the area’s median income. [DNAinfo – 04/25/14]
3. Effort to remove landlord who made units unlivable. In a case that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is holding up as an example of ‘egregious harassment,’ New York state and city officials are moving aggressively against a Brooklyn landlord accused of wrecking the kitchens and bathrooms of occupied apartments to drive out longtime tenants. Officials with the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development announced on Wednesday that they had gone to the city’s Housing Court seeking to remove the landlord, Joel Israel, from managing a six-unit, rent-stabilized building in Bushwick, and to have the court appoint an independent administrator for the property. [The New York Times – 04/24/14]
4. The housing market is stalling, and stagnant wages are to blame. Although the economy has shown signs of life lately, growth is still pretty sluggish. The primary culprit appears to be housing: as Neil Irwin points out today, even after recovering from its Great Recession nadir, investment in residential property remains anemic compared to its average level over the past few decades. People just aren’t buying new houses-or refinancing old ones-fast enough to power a serious recovery. [Mother Jones – 04/25/14]
5. After blast, East Harlem tenants are worried about dust. More than a month after an explosion touched off by a gas leak leveled two buildings and killed eight people, over half of the households in buildings affected by the blast have not been able to return to their homes. In addition to the two buildings that were destroyed, the city vacated four neighboring properties that suffered damage. [The New York Times – 04/24/14]
6. Why Americans are moving less: new jobs aren’t worth it. Americans are moving less and less these days. Last year, just 11.7 percent of us (a near record low) packed up and moved across town or the country, a huge decline from the ferment of the 1950s and 1960s. What’s behind Americans’ decreasing mobility? [The Atlantic Cities – 04/28/14]
7. NYC foreclosure filings drop dramatically. Things are looking good for the New York state housing market. Foreclosure filings throughout the state were down 31 percent in March, breaking a two-year trend.In the city, Queens foreclosure filings fell 25 percent, and in Staten Island filings dropped 26 percent. But Brooklyn saw the most dramatic decline, dropping 35 percent year-over-year, according to RealtyTrac data cited by the New York Post. [The Real Deal Magazine – 04/27/14]
8. Mayor de Blasio to unveil affordable housing plan to meet his pledge of 200,000 below-market units. Now that the battle in Albany over pre-kindergarten is behind him, Mayor de Blasio is turning his focus to a second key pledge of his campaign - creating more affordable housing to prevent middle and low-income New Yorkers from being squeezed out of the city for good. De Blasio has promised to unveil his long-awaited affordable housing plan on Thursday - giving the nuts and bolts of his promise to add or preserve 200,000 below-market rate units over the next 10 years. If he succeeds, his administration would exceed even Mayor Ed Koch’s widely lauded housing plan, which produced 190,000 affordable units over 13 years. [New York Daily News – 04/28/14]
9. NYC tests post-disaster housing in downtown Brooklyn. New York City is testing an experimental post-disaster housing prototype in Downtown Brooklyn. If the test is successful, the modular housing could be installed in parking lots, on dead end streets, or on other paved land in neighborhoods hit by a disaster. The idea is to keep residents living as close to home as possible while they recover. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle – 04/28/14]
10. Creating a model for urban manufacturing in NYC. A 10 minute-walk from one of the city’s hottest tech hubs is a fenced-in former shipyard known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard that has helped to pioneer the revitalization of manufacturing in New York City. A majority of New York City’s 21 industrial business zones (IBZ) are located along the water’s edge. Very much remnants of an earlier era, the repurposed old warehouses and yards now support a new form of manufacturing and innovation. With a lot of help from former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the sector has stabilized and is positioned for growth. [The Epoch Times – 04/28/14]