“Looming Rent Increase of Up to 9 Percent Tests Adams’s Housing Priorities” (New York Times, May 4, 2022):
The powerful Rent Guidelines Board, which the mayor controls, will take a preliminary vote on Thursday on proposed rent increases of 2.7 to 4.5 percent on one-year leases and 4.3 to 9 percent on two-year leases. A final vote is expected in June.
The annual decision by the Rent Guidelines Board, which affects more than two million residents who live in buildings built before 1974 that have six or more units, always ignites passionate debate and an intense lobbying effort from tenants and landlords.
Note that the headline is kind of a lie, implying that rents might be going up by 9 percent in one year (the standard period to look at).
The good news is that, if you are one of the two million people who live in an apartment whose rent is set by the central planners, your personal inflation rate, at least for housing, could have been as low as 2.7 percent. How does this compare to the official government CPI? The word “inflation” does not appear in the NYT article (see “Team Transitory”).
Just a day later, the horror of 2.7 percent inflation was averted. “Panel Backs Rent Increases for More Than 2 Million New Yorkers” (NYT, May 5, 2022):
The New York City panel charged with regulating rents across nearly one million rent-stabilized homes voted on Thursday to support the largest increases in almost a decade.
The move, which must be formally approved next month, would raise rents on one-year leases by 2 to 4 percent, and on two-year leases by 4 to 6 percent. The increases are another reminder of the affordability crisis the city faces as it emerges from the pandemic.
Related:
- “‘They’ll have to carry me out in a box’: inside the apartments of the luckiest renters” (Guardian, February 2022): Growing up on the Upper West Side, Hattie Kolp, like any kid, didn’t think much about the apartment she and her family moved into in 2002, but the roughly 1,500-square-foot two-bedroom has become the center of the 30-year-old’s life as an influencer. She shares photos of the apartment’s details that hint at the building’s 1890 construction – like an original butler’s pantry and ornate fireplaces – with her 90,000 TikTok followers and 52,000 followers on Instagram. … “My parents knew this was not their forever home, so they didn’t really care to do any projects,” says Kolp, who assumed the lease from her parents in 2018. … For New Yorkers who are acutely aware of how much a place like this should cost, Kolp’s rent – $1,300 per month – is jaw-dropping. Plus, it’s rent-stabilized – meaning it can only increase in rent modestly once a year. There are only 1m such units in New York City.
The fact that rent control has survived 5th amendment takings clause challenges continues to stun me.
Surprised NY landlords don’t end the lease when they need more money. In Calif*, they just don’t renew the lease or they convert the apartment to a condo.
This year’s rent increase was 7% under Calif*’s statewide rent control. It limits the increase to the rate of inflation or 10%.
NY landlords can not end a lease only the tenant has that power.
It is now hard to find 2 year lease for rented apartments in working parts of New York City within 30 minutes walk of one workplaces. Apartment leases are for 1 year, and currently annual rent increase is over 30% over last rent amount
Why stop at *Rent* “Guidelines Board”? Doesn’t NYC needs “Guidelines Board” for everything else too? Food? Restaurants? Food trucks? Broadway / Entertainment theaters? Essential marijuana / drugs? Et. al.
If NYC can order and dictate rent rates, shouldn’t they do the same for everything else that NY’erken spend money on?
With “Guidelines Boards”, they have the power to control inflation and eliminate inequality for every-single-person living in NYC.
Two million residents (probably all Democrats) affected. That is sufficient voting power so things will never change. Worse, these are exactly the kind of people who tell everyone that #WeHaveSpace.
It is increasingly important to know how to game the system instead of learning skills or being productive.
I kept my tenant’s rent level for five years, with the first increase at 10% in Sep. 2021. I’m going up another 6% this coming Sep. And I’ll still be 17% under market rate. On the other hand, I’ve only heard from my tenant three times in five years.
> I kept my tenant’s rent level for five years
Is this an investment property with multiple tenants? If so, how are you able to do this and yet not make income (or lose income)? Didn’t your property tax, water, heating, insurance, maintenance cost, etc. go up? Or maybe you have no mortgage on the property as such steady rent and existing easy going tenants is all you care about.
Right, no mortgage, and the excellent tenant is gold. But expenses have cut annual ROI to just 1.5%.
I bought this property at a great price as a foreclosure and it was to be my future retirement home, but ever-increasing property taxes and HOA fees are going to force me to cash out and sell, probably within a few months.