Columnist at The Real Deal, covering NYC real estate. Previously a reporter and editor at Crain's New York Business, 2005-19. Journalist since 1991.
NY
Joined December 2010
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The number of aging homes that need work is increasing. Most homebuyers don't want to do that work. That's where house-flippers come in. So why do politicians blame these entrepreneurs for raising the cost of housing and try to curtail their business? therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
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Does the WFP really believe this? Hochul won by 20 points!
>“I think she understands that she couldn’t have won without the help of the mayor, without the help of the Working Families Party, without the help of @AOC," state WFP director Jasmine Gripper told City & State.
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I see that Sen. Liz Krueger wants to chair the Senate housing committee. In 2023 she opposed raising NYC's density cap because she doesn't like tall buildings in Manhattan therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Will @GovKathyHochul be pressured into accelerating statewide rent stabilization? Or a third millionaires' tax and mansion tax? I predict not. But she and @NYCMayor could agree on a 485x fix. therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
I didn't hear any candidates blathering about "drill, baby, drill" and "energy independence" during the campaign. Do you think people have figured out that it doesn't shield us from rising gas and oil prices?
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Two @ny_multifamily brokers asked me about NYC real estate and politics and what it's like to cover them for @trdny. Exceptionally well produced podcast by Marcus & Millichap.
newyorkmultifamily.com/the-r…
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In 16 months, FARE Act fines and broker fees recovered for tenants totaled 4 cents per rental unit. Yet all the coverage of enforcement has focused on the violations, not the fact that they are exceedingly rare. therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Court Street in Brooklyn has 23 percent fewer crashes since the bike lane went in, NYPD data show. See CrashCount.nyc
Do you agree or disagree with this theory?
> Tenants who think they can nab a great deal on a rent-stabilized apartment in NYC without paying a rental broker are engaging in wishful thinking.
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The city says the average size of 485x projects is increasing. But the number of projects above 99 units is still near zero. Every week more sites are lost to undersized projects:
> The largest permit filed yesterday was for a 99-unit project at 228 West 29th Street in Chelsea.
Jason B. never left NYC, never stopped paying city income taxes. Mamdani's Department of Finance said that doesn't spare him from a pied-à-terre tax of $47,500. Jason went searching for another way to get out of it. Here's his story: therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
The @MTA says “legend has it that the 2,174-foot-long Manhattan Valley Viaduct, a massive steel bridge over a deep valley in Upper Manhattan, was built in just two weeks.” In the same newsletter it brags about a current project going thru five or six stages of review. Hello?
“The viaduct was 2,174 feet long, and the journal Tramway and Railway World said that the 168.5-foot span across 125th Street, 54 feet high, was built in two weeks by from 30 to 40 men.”
nytimes.com/2003/10/26/reale…
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Lots of folks are contributing ideas about how to boost housing supply. And then we have the City Club of New York, which is trying to do the opposite. Given who leads it, perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
One-shot deals seem good for landlords in that they repay a tenant’s arrears. But not if they encourage nonpayment and don’t reimburse the landlord for the legal fees that owners say is usually necessary to trigger a one-shot, this owner says.
therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
Update on the administration’s affordable housing plan (which actually doesn’t exist):
> Nearly 67% of builders said immigration enforcement is affecting their labor force, up from 23% in March and 13% a year ago, a John Burns Research and Consulting survey found [Bisnow]
To save money, we build far more low-rent units in poor neighborhoods than in rich ones. But there’s a hidden cost: Concentrating disadvantaged people makes it extra hard for their kids to break the cycle of poverty. What's your view on this?
therealdeal.com/new-york/202…
One thing that @NFL television commentators rarely notice is when quarterbacks panic and leave a well protected pocket and run into a sack. They always credit the pass rush, even though it essentially failed. @NFLonFOX
youtu.be/SObWpxYrrRE?is=ybEm… via @YouTube
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No doubt most of the Council member's constituents live in housing that was built without having to run the political gauntlet that she wishes still applied to future housing development.
The only housing that politicians universally like is the housing that's already there.
I spoke with @kaymsanto about what her district's housing fast-track designation means for how she'll approach future development proposals, her Bay Ridge triangle rezoning plan and more.
Check out the full conversation below:
therealdeal.com/policy-pro/n…
