News
By MIKE BOSTOCK, SHAN CARTER and ARCHIE TSE
The choice between buying a home and renting one is among the biggest financial decisions that many adults make. But the costs of buying are more varied and complicated than for renting, making it hard to tell which is a better deal. To help you answer this question, our calculator takes the most important costs associated with buying a house and computes the equivalent monthly rent.
Full article (The Upshot, New York Times, May 2014)
The owner of a house in Homecrest, Brooklyn, requested permission from the city to make “a horizontal and vertical enlargement to an existing two-story, one-family residence.”
More than eight years later, what began as a humble brick bungalow, perching modestly between its low-slung brick and wood neighbors, has swollen into a five-story skeletal tower that looms over the street and smothers the collapsed bungalow below. It is half-finished, with a rib cage of metal beams exposed beneath temporary white cladding and gaping windows punched out in front, but it looks instead as though it had been half-demolished by an errant torpedo.
In the words of one neighbor: “It’s the ugliest thing I ever saw. Who in the world builds a house like that?”
The city said this week that a lawyer for the owner, Joseph Durzieh, had, at long last, agreed to accept the Buildings Department’s demands that the structure be demolished. But neighbors remain skeptical that the scourge of their quiet block will finally meet the wrecking ball.
Over the past decade, those neighbors have endured the mice that scurried into their kitchens. The raccoons rummaging through the garbage. The stray cats colonizing the front yard-turned-junkyard. The flies.
But most maddening of all, the neighbors said, was the seeming inability of any authority — despite years of complaints, departmental audits and a stop-work order — to rid them of the eyesore that is 1882 East 12th Street.
Full article in the New York Times (1 May 2014)
Nubia Chavez and Manuel Acuña have been bouncing from rental to rental around New York City like millennials. They recently decamped to a $700-a-month room in a Queens apartment, with a shared bathroom and no access to the kitchen except to make coffee.
But Ms. Chavez, a housekeeper, and Mr. Acuña, a retired building porter, are not in their 20s. They are 65 and 72, and they say they are tired — of the moving, of the lack of permanency and of a lifestyle not suited to their age.
“I want to live in my own place,” Ms. Chavez said. “No more rooms.”
Jennifer Stock, 33, has been looking for a place for her ailing 89-year-old father after his assisted living residence in Park Slope, Brooklyn, announced it would shut down by this summer.
And in Astoria, Queens, Norma and Rodolfo de la Rosa recently put their names on a waiting list for an affordable residence for older adults because, they say, their Social Security checks cannot keep up with rent increases. The list has nearly 4,000 names.
Finding adequate housing has become an all-consuming preoccupation for many older New Yorkers, a group whose explosive growth and changing housing needs pose new challenges for the city. As serious as New York’s affordable housing shortage has become, the squeeze has been perhaps harshest on older adults. At a certain age, substandard living conditions become less tolerable, walk-ups are no longer viable, even stabilized rents become too high, and the need for housing with special services grows.
Full article in New York Times (29 April 2014)
A group of Brooklyn tenants have filed a federal lawsuit against two landlords, accusing the defendants of illegally trying to force them out of their rent-stabilized apartments to make room for new renters who pay market rates.
The Flatbush Development Corporation and the Flatbush Tenants Coalition, along with 11 named tenants, filed the housing discrimination case Monday in Brooklyn federal court.
They’re seeking unspecified damages, according to the suit.
Most of the plaintiffs — who live in three buildings on Hawthorne Ave. and Brooklyn Ave. in Prospect Lefferts Gardens — have resided in the complex for decades, according to court documents.
The suit alleges that landlords Yeahaya “Shay” Wasserman and Yitzchock Rambod, Homewood Gardens Estates LLC and Eastern Hawthorne Realty 651 LLC have violated the Fair Housing Act as well as city and state human rights laws.
The landlords targeted longstanding black tenants who lived in rent-stabilized apartments, the suit contends.
The plaintiffs pay anywhere from $600 to $1,400 a month for 52 three-bedroom units in the three buildings, according to the lawsuit.
Calls to the offices of Wasserman and Rambod were not returned Tuesday. Their office at Eastern Hawthorne Realty was closed for Passover, a sign said.
The tenants, represented by lawyers from Legal Services NYC, say they were the victims of a systematic pattern of harassment, neglect and frivolous housing lawsuits designed to force them out to make room for new tenants paying double the rent.
The group claims the landlords, who bought the buildings in 2009, have neglected to do repairs in black-occupied units.
The defendants have also taken tenants to housing court with falsified claims and left rent checks uncashed in an attempt to evict rent-stabilized residents, the lawsuit asserts.
Black tenants were also forced to get rid of pets and washing machines, the suit says.
Full article in The Daily News, Brooklyn Section (15 April 2014)
MIDTOWN — Fed up with what they see as the overdevelopment of their neighborhood, a group of West Side residents has banded together in a last-ditch effort to oppose developer TF Cornerstone'snew residential building at 606 W. 57th St.
Some neighbors say that the area's schools, hospitals and public transportation can't handle the influx of new residents the massive building would bring. The project, which requires City Council approval for rezoning, would bring 1,189 units to the neighborhood, 237 of which would be permanently affordable.
"Fifty-Seventh Street is under siege," said Jessica Bondy, who lives nearby and has been lobbying City Council members to fight or shrink the development. "All of us are concerned about the unsustainability of projects this size. It's a giant, giant project."
Bondy joined with neighbors to create a coalition called Citizens for Responsible Organized West Side Development With Environmental Deference — or CROWDED for short. Roughly 150 people participated in a community-organized forum on overdevelopment and the TF Cornerstone project last week, with participation by City Councilman Corey Johnson and City Councilwoman Helen Rosenthal, organizers said.
The proposed 999,636-square-foot building is made up of four distinct elements, including two 28-story towers on the eastern half, connected by a glass bridge, and a 14-story cube on top. On the western portion of the site, a tower will rise to 17 stories.
Full article on DNAinfo (Arpil 14, 2014)
Residents of the six-story building at 85 Eastern Parkway were shocked when they learned that their landlord wanted to construct an addition atop the building that would double the size of the structure. The plans were first filed in January and called for a seven-story addition that would up the number of units from 42 to 88. DNAinfo reports that the Department of Buildings has since rejected that application, but the project is by no means dead. In March, the building owner, Mordechai Nagel, sent a letter to tenants regarding the addition, noting that plans are still "at an early feasibility and planning stage," but they should "expect a degree of inconvenience as there always is during construction activity."
The apartments are currently a mix of market-rate and rent-stabilized-units, and many tenants have lived in the building for decades. Tenants are, obviously, very worried about the project, and they've started tracking the development on a tenants association website. Chief among the tenants' concerns are the credentials of the hired architect, Sandor Weiss. In 2002, Weiss was fined $5,000 for not properly reviewing plans before signing off, and DOB records show that he has been disciplined twice for improperly wielding his self-certification powers, which he had to surrender in the past.
The plan for the addition still hasn't been approved by the Department of Buildings, but an alteration permit for the "removal of interior partition and plumbing fixtures" was approved in March. Additionally, permits were approved for the renovation of a first floor apartment in January, but the project was hit with a Stop Work Order in March. Shortly after that, the DOB issued another violation after finding workers doing plumbing in violation of the original SWO. The SWO still stands.
The building sits between Washington and Underhill Avenues across the parkway from the Brooklyn Museum. It was constructed in 1922, but it's not located in a historic district. All of the buildings on the block have a similar aesthetic and the immediate neighbors are roughly the same height as no. 85. But the block (which is oddly long due to the street grid in this area) is bookended by 15-story and 12-story buildings, so a 13-story building wouldn't be too out of place—unless, of course, the addition is some garish glass monstrosity.
Article by Jessica Dailey on Curbed.com (New York) on 10 April 2014
PROSPECT HEIGHTS — Plans for a six-story building near Grand Army Plaza to more than double in height have residents worried their home will be disrupted by years of construction.
The owner of 85 Eastern Parkway, a 42-unit complex near Underhill Avenue, has filed an application to build a seven-story addition on top of the building, records show. Tenants of the building called The Martha Washington said they fear being bombarded by noise and dust, and even being moved out of their apartments.
“The whole block is in an uproar,” said 23-year resident Alison Kelley, who walks with a service dog and worries about elevator access to her fourth-floor apartment during construction.
Residents of the mixed market-rate and rent-stabilized building near the Brooklyn Museum first heard about the planned 30,000-square-foot addition when a real estate website wrote about an application building owner Mordechai Nagel and architect Sandor Weiss filed with the Department of Buildings on Jan. 10.
The DOB rejected the application, saying drawings provided were incomplete, DOB records show.
Full article by Rachel Holliday Smith on DNAinfo.com, 10 April 2014
BROOKLYN — Brooklyn's becoming home to the wealthy.
All signs point to a rise in people earning $300,000 a year or more flooding brownstone enclaves like Park Slope and Carroll Gardens and hot communities like Williamsburg and Greenpoint, according to Ideal Properties' inaugural "profile of home buyers in Brownstone Brooklyn" quarterly report released Tuesday.
The number of these high-income earners who bought homes in these areas shot up more than 316 percent in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the previous year.
They accounted for 30 percent of the buyers, the report found.
"The reality is that people with deeper pockets and a lot more cash available are buying in the area," said Aleksandra Scepanovic, managing director of Ideal Properties, who has been working in Prospect Heights for more than a decade.
Her office decided to sort through buyer data after a client, "who in any other circumstance or country would be considered wealthy," was considering selling a Prospect Heights townhouse because "the filthy-rich people were moving into the neighborhood," Scepanovic recounted.
She wanted to find out what was going on beyond that person's block.
"A lot of our agents are working with buyers who, even if they have $500,000 in savings and $200,000 available to put down, [agents] are shopping them around with hundreds like them or better qualified," she said.
For those who don't have that kind of money, Scepanovic said, "The question is whether you'll be able to purchase the exact property that you want. Even if you can somewhat afford a specific property, there will probably be someone else with more disposable income or liquid assets [who will] beat you. So, you may have to settle."
Full article in DNAinfo.com
Tuesday, April 8, 2014, by Curbed Staff
"Irresponsible" and "out of control" were just a few ways neighbors described the 23-story residential tower planned for 626 Flatbush Avenue, between Fenimore and Hawthorne Streets just a block from Prospect Park. Last night during a standing-room only town hall meeting organized by the Prospect Park East Network, residents of Prospect Lefferts Gardens expressed their deep disapproval of the development, which was first announced by developer Hudson Companies last summer. A number of city officials and politicians, including Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, were there to hear their concerns—and boy, did they get an earful.
Alicia Bond, a resident who moved to the neighborhood after getting priced out of Boerum Hill, fell in love with Prospect Lefferts Gardens because there were "no tall buildings." Prospect Park was also a huge draw because she feels when you're there you can really "believe for a second you're not in the city." Her voice rose as she vowed to fight the development every step of the way, even going as far as saying if the fight led her to jail, she'd go "because that's my park, that's our park."
That sense of possessiveness was shared by many attendees at the meeting, who talked about feeling at home in the racially diverse neighborhood and wanting development to be contextual with all the other low-rise buildings. The problem is, as Prospect Park East is currently zoned, developers can build as high as they want without seeking community approval.
Not so on the west side of the neighborhood where zoning limits building heights—which is driving all the development east. The site of Hudson Companies' planned project is currently occupied by medical offices and a parking lot. The tower would rise on the parking lot, which abuts the below-grade subway tracks that run between Ocean and Flatbush Avenues. The buildings along Ocean that face Prospect Park are six-stories tall, so 626 Flatbush would more than double their height. To halt the development, Prospect Park East Network (PPEN) has filed alawsuit challenging the developer's right to build on environmental grounds. They also point out that since the developers are using nearly $72 million in state bonds to fund the project, they should be accountable to the community.
In the short-term, PPEN is seeking a moratorium on construction until they can get a rezoning to limit building height to eight or nine stories. Residents and Community Board 9 have been asking for a rezoning since 2008, but according to PPEN, the Department of City Planning (which reviews zoning applications), told them they had many other zoning requests to consider and they had to wait.
In the meantime, residents are fighting to keep their neighborhood from turning into a mini-Manhattan, where one former Manhattanite said all the high-rise buildings made him feel like a "caged animal." In Prospect Lefferts Gardens, he continued, the "sky is dynamic and a part of the life we live here." Huge buildings would alter the skyline and the park irrevocably.
Full article on Curbed.com New York
by Leigh Kamping-Carder | 4/07/14 - 11:59 AM
For rent-stabilized tenants, a buyout offer from your landlord is like hitting the jackpot in the great casino of the New York City renting world. But how far will that chunk of change actually take you? The Shalom Tenants Alliance, a tenants' rights group, has put together a handy buyout calculator, which the New York Times spotted this weekend, that lets you calculate how many months of buying or owning you'd be able to afford with your landlord's offer.
Type in the relevant numbers--the offer, your income, your new rent, and so on--and presto, you'll get a breakdown of what you'd be left with after taxes, moving costs, broker's fees and a higher rent.
And it's quite the reality check. For example, let's say you make $30,000 a year after taxes, your landlord has offered you $10,000 to vacate, and you plan to pay $800 more every month in rent. Turns out your "windfall" would actually only cover you for three months by the time you pay the costs and taxes associated with moving, plus the higher rent. You'd also lose all the protections of rent stabilization.
Full article on Brick Underground
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Some Brooklyn residents faced their landlord in court Wednesday, charging that he trashed their homes in an effort to drive them out and raise rents.
As CBS 2′s John Slattery reported, the tenants, who gave CBS 2 a tour of their apartments last month, say Joel Israel demolished their kitchens and bathrooms in order to renovate, but never did. Their homes were left with gaping holes in floors and walls.
“It’s frustrating to see him,” said Michele Navas, a Bushwick tenant who attended a housing court hearing Wednesday. “He doesn’t care about our situation. He’s trying to make settlements on things that doesn’t even benefit us at all.
“He’s trying to kick us out so he can be able to raise the rent.”
Tenants pay less than $700 a month to live in the rent-stabilized apartments. They say Israel knows he can get two or three times more if they move out and he finds new renters.
Israel and his brother, Aaron, own several Bushwick buildings. Ten buildings associated with Joel Israel have been cited for 482 housing code violations, according to city records.
The city has ordered some of the tenants to vacate their homes because they are unsafe.
The shocking level of income inequality in this country has set off alarms that grow louder by the day, but little seems to be underway to reverse the trend.As a January International Monetary Fund paper that was officially released on Thursday points out:
“In the United States, the share of market income captured by the richest 10 percent surged from around 30 percent in 1980 to 48 percent by 2012, while the share of the richest 1 percent increased from 8 percent to 19 percent. Even more striking is the fourfold increase in the income share of the richest 0.1 percent, from 2.6 percent to 10.4 percent.”
In fact, a study published last year in The Journal of Economic Perspectives found that the share of income going to the top 1 percent in America was higher than in other developed countries.
Full article of The New York Times here
Tenants of about a dozen buildings in Crown Heights have formed a group to fight gentrification, landlord abuse and rising rents called Crown Heights Tenant Union, Brooklyn Bureau reported. Formed in October, the group recently held a rally outside 1059 Union Street, above, to protest landlords who try to force out longtime tenants to deregulate apartments and raise rents.
“When long term tenants move out, landlords have been gutting the apartments to deregulate the rents,” said the story. “At the same time the long term residents are not getting repairs in their units.”
The group was created with the assistance of the Pratt Area Community Council and the Urban Homesteading Assistance Board, or UHAB. The union has a list of demands, “including a five-year rent freeze, timely repairs, a right to organize and a right to fair leases.”
“They’re beautifying the neighborhood,” the story quoted a long-term resident as saying. “I’ve been here for 36 years. I want to enjoy that also.”
Full article in the Brownstoner (4 March 2013)
On the surface, there are few positions more fortuitous than living in a rent-stabilized apartment in one of the city's newly hip enclaves—renters can partake of the trendy cafés and lower crime rates without the accompanying bloated cost of living. But what if your landlord is willing to take an axe to your boiler to force you to leave? What if they’re eager to destroy their own property for market-rate rent? Apartment sabotage is real, and gentrification has made it more common than you might think.
"We see this type of stuff in north Brooklyn a lot," said Greg Hanlon, a spokesperson for the non-profit St. Nick's Alliance. "The incentive for these landlords to kick out their long-term rent stabilized tenants is high, because obviously market rate rents are completely through the roof. It seems far-fetched to picture these landlords messing up their own buildings, but they obviously made the calculation."
Catalina Hidalgo, a life-long Greenpoint resident, has lived in her current apartment at 300 Nassau since 2004. When she first moved in, her rent was around $500 a month; it's since increased to $754—a bargain in a neighborhood where a two-bedroom like Hidalgo's typically runs around $2,500 a month.
Gothamist.com - 24 February 2014
The letter from the landlord said he needed access to the apartments for a couple of weeks to make repairs.
The worker who showed up the next morning was armed with a sledgehammer and an electric saw, the tenants said, and took just hours to destroy the kitchens and the bathrooms. When the worker was done, the tenants in 1L could see the building’s basement through the remnants of their kitchen floor.
Eight months later, the kitchens and bathrooms in Apartments 1L and 1R, two rent-stabilized units on the ground floor of a six-unit building in Bushwick, Brooklyn, are still a gutted mess of exposed beams and debris. And the tenants and the landlord are locked in a standoff that underscores the anxiety coursing through changing neighborhoods, where many landlords are trying to capitalize on New York City’s robust real estate market while many lower-income tenants wonder how long they will be able to hold on to their homes.
“Our only sin is to have lived here for a long time,” said Carlos Calero, 52, a supervisor at a recycling company who pays $706 a month for the two-bedroom apartment he shares with his wife, two children and two young grandchildren.
Full article New York Times 25 February 2014
A six-story rental building at 85 Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights is receiving a $3 million expansion.
The Martha Washington building, which dates back to 1922, is located between Underhill and Washington avenues. The eight-story addition would boost the total apartment count from 42 units to 82 units, according to the plan exam application filed January 10th. The enlarged structure will rise 14 stories and 123 feet, measuring a total of 76,183 square feet; a duplex will occupy the top two floors.
The architect of record is Sandor Weiss of Anno Mundi, and the proposed renovation would cost an estimated $3.251 million.
The property traded for $2.215 million in 2012, according to public records.
The six-story rental building at 85 Eastern Parkway in Prospect Heights is set to more than double in height. Filings with the Department of Buildings show plans for an eight-story addition, which will bring the number of units from 42 to 82, with the top two floors being one duplex penthouse. The current building dates to 1922 and is located between Underhill and Washington Avenues. There are no renderings yet and details are lacking, but we bet these new units will be sold as condos. Thoughts? Intel? The tipline is open. [BuzzBuzz]
And as certain areas of the city have been rezoned from commercial to residential use, Mr. Visconti said, developers find it feasible -- particularly in lower Manhattan where many older buildings retain unused development rights -- ''to buy buildings and add two, three or whatever the lot will yield in the way of additional floor area.''
The phenomenon has generated considerable controversy, particularly from neighbors of buildings experiencing unanticipated growth spurts and, in some cases, people already living in the buildings.
There are immediate concerns, like the din of construction, fear of falling debris and fire safety; and longer-term issues, like access to light and air, the structural integrity of the old building, the historic character of the community and, in grittier districts, the frustration that ''there goes the neighborhood'' (upscale).
Not to mention sudden loss of that precious commodity: view.