Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Renters are victims of mortgage crisis, too

A growing number of apartment buildings in the city are at risk of going into foreclosure, making thousands of tenants the next potential victims of the mortgage crisis, housing activists warn.

More city apartments facing foreclosure

Nobody knows precisely how many tenants are at risk, but advocates say a minimum of 580 buildings, containing 40,000 units, have one or more factors that could lead to default.

Over the past four years, private equity firms have gobbled up at least 90,000 affordable-housing units in the city at inflated prices and in highly leveraged deals with the hopes of raising rents and maximizing profit, according to the Partnership to Preserve Affordable Housing.

But the debt service on many of the buildings is not being supported by rental income because the apartments are still governed by regulations that limit rent increases. In many cases, owners envisioned unrealistic rent growth, but lenders—caught up in the same free-flowing credit frenzy that led to rampant single-family home foreclosures—made the loans anyway. They sold the loans to investment banks, which packaged them into mortgage-backed securities.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

what actual housing advocates are mentioned or quoted in the article about possible foreclosures? this is just more gloom and doom bs intended to inject baseless fear.

reduction in maintenance? give me a break. go to Queens housing court on any Wednesday and see how many tenants are there fighting to get routine maintenance. the slumlords don't do simple repairs then act all surprised when after 15 years of not doing simple repairs that every single apartment in their investment has serious problems.
don't fix the roof, let leaks continue for 30 years, what do you expect will happen?

the slumlords are busy driving the buildings into the ground in order to milk the cash cows. They don't fix things or provide heat in winter to drive out tenants, keep the revolving door to raise the rents. Get in the next sucker who will put up with mold, leaks, lack of hot water and heat. Terrorize and bully those who exercise their rights. should empty out that apartment quick.


well maybe the landlords better lower the rents back to normal levels instead of being greedy scum.
more control, less rent.

come to Harlem tomorrow at 5:30pm October 1st to protest the recent rent hikes. 125th Street at the Harlem State Office Building
(163 East 125th Street)

www.hcc-nyc.org