Wednesday, October 28, 2026
City Council’s ‘Distressed’ Housing Scheme Would Aggravate New York’s Affordability Crisis
“Decline is a choice,” Charles Krauthammer famously said of the policies of the Obama Administration. A version of the phrase applies to the New York City Council’s latest, misguided housing policy: distress is a choice.
The Council is blessing what is not a self-evident idea: that non-profit organizations will do a better job than private owners in rescuing the city’s thousands of “distressed” rental apartment buildings.
By giving such groups a right of first refusal to buy, the Community Opportunity To Purchase Act would, per its sponsors, “stabilize an increasingly distressed affordable housing sector.” In contrast to Mayor Eric Adams, who refused to sign a similar bill, Mayor Mamdani has indicated he will do so.
Rather than signing the bill into law, here’s a better idea: address the reasons why older rental buildings are falling into disrepair in the first place, rather than handing them over to groups which, according to NYU’s Furman Housing Center, lack the financial capacity to fix them up.
“A lack of resources and a lack of capacity within the qualified not-for-profit sector,” the Furman center says, “make it unlikely that this sector can meet the demand from tenants involved in the more than 6,000 annual sales of residential buildings with three or more units in New York City. This will make the experience frustrating for tenants who may be interested in exercising the new right.”
Ironically, the language of the bill’s justification for taking property out of the hands of the private sector reveals the true underlying housing problems: a combination of “inflating costs and stagnating revenues.”
It’s tough to control inflating costs at a time of rising fuel bills, for instance — but stagnating revenues have everything to do with city policies, none more obvious than Mr. Mamdani’s rent freeze, coupled with rising property tax bills. Per Furman: “Property tax bills for older, predominantly rent-stabilized buildings (where 90 percent or more of units are regulated) have risen faster than inflation even as their net operating incomes have declined in real terms.”
The city has applied a tourniquet to rental revenues — and having caused distress, blames it on “predatory landlords,” as a sponsor of the Opportunity to Purchase Act, Councilwoman Sandy Nurse, puts it. The numbers are stark.
Even before the rent freeze a Furman Center study of the financial pressures faced by these older, rent-stabilized buildings found that net operating income — in other words, profit — declined, after inflation, between 2019 and 2025 to the point that “tightening operating margins that may limit the ability of owners to invest in building upkeep.”
Furman’s Mark Willis told the city’s Rent Guidelines Board that thousands of prewar buildings in the Bronx are operating under water as rent increases failed to cover increased operating costs “ by roughly 1 percent per year in pre-1974 rent-stabilized buildings in the Bronx. “ That’s the recipe for distressed housing.
As the most recent Census Bureau Survey of NY Housing makes clear, there’s a direct link between price regulation — “rent stabilization” — and poor building conditions, or distress. Per the survey: a third of rent-regulated units have “rodents” — almost twice the rate of unregulated apartments, as well as twice the number of leaks and three times the number of heat breakdowns.
Not only do the City Council and the mayor have to ignore their own role in causing housing distress, they have to believe that taking the profit motive out of housing management will lead to better days.
That was the theory that inspired public housing in the 1930s. Its original advocates were avowed, confident socialists, like Lewis Mumford, who viewed government as the best provider of good housing. “Where is the impetus for such housing to come from?” he asked, asserting that “it cannot be found in capitalistic methods of production.”
In practice, NYCHA operates the most distressed housing in Gotham. Under the Opportunity to Purchase Act, it’s likely the city will have to invest millions to renovate units for the new non-profit owners.
Notably, nonprofit management did not prevent the 19 buildings owned by Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement from accumulating, per the Chronicle of Philanthropy, “hundreds of citations for trash accumulation, inadequate heat, mold in apartments and sewage in hallways.”
Private owners have skin in the game; nothing is worse for them than distressed units that they can’t rent and stay vacant. If the value of their property falls, they still can face unforgiving mortgage payments. No rational owner chooses to starve a building of maintenance — except for that “declining revenue” problem.
Non-profit operators may, to be sure, have altruistic motives to help stabilize neighborhoods and improve buildings. Yet they will not be immune from a shortage of investment capital. Their management teams tend to be salaried bureaucrats — with no ownership stake.
Here’s a better idea for the council and mayor: unfreeze rents, freeze rental building property taxes — and phase out rent stabilization. Watch housing “distress” fade away.
Howard Husock is a senior fellow for Domestic Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute and author of 'The Projects: A New History of Public Housing.'
https://www.nysun.com/article/city-councils-distressed-housing-scheme-would-aggravate-new-yorks-affordability-crisis
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Orthodox Jews flee NY for Florida amid rising antisemitism
More than 100 Orthodox Jewish families, fed up with rising antisemitism and political dysfunction in New York, are planning to join the 60 who already fled the state for a new community in Florida — only for far-right influencers to descend on their community and spew vicious Jew-hating rhetoric.
Lakefront Estates, a $300 million, 550-acre neighborhood developed in Glades County, officially opened its doors in October and has seen an influx ever since.
The community boasts a kosher supermarket, synagogue and yeshiva for the Orthodox Jewish community.
Lakefront Estates CEO Yidel Perlstein said that the Orthodox Jewish community represents the first wave of sales at the development because so many Jews were seeking to leave New York, but that the homes at Lakefront Estates are open for anyone to buy.
The town offers 4 bedroom 2,5000 square foot homes starting at $460,000 and 7 bedroom 3700 square foot homes for $585,000, Perlstein said.
Multiple families interviewed by The Post said that rising antisemitism, which supercharged under Mayor Zohran Mamdani, gave them the final push to leave The Empire State.
“You could feel the antisemitism everywhere; even my community Borough Park changed after Mamdani came in,” said Morris, a former Brooklynite, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation from the influencers.
A mother of four, who also wished to remain anonymous, said that rising antisemitism and the high cost of housing in New York led her family to make the move to the sunshine state.
“New York has become increasingly antisemitic, we’ve been facing that a lot,” she said.
She also said that Florida’s policy of providing vouchers to help pay for private school tuition was a factor in her family’s decision to move.
Hate crimes in New York City have soared nearly 16% since last year, with attacks against Jews comprising half of them, according to NYPD data.
New York State Rep. Aron Wieder (D-Rockland County), who has seen 20 families from his heavily Orthodox district move to Lakefront, said that the rise in antisemitism has spurred many from his community to look for homes outside of New York.
“All my grandparents were Holocaust survivors, never would they have dreamed that their descendants would have to face what they faced in the leadup to the Holocaust,” Wieder said.
“For a Jew to have to look over their shoulder when they’re walking down the street, it’s very disturbing,” he added.
Wieder also said that high taxes and the high cost of housing in New York has also pushed Orthodox Jews out of the state.
New York has the highest state and local taxes in the nation, and collects ad staggering $13,000 per capita, according to a study by the Citizens Budget Commission.
The Empire State ranked dead last in housing affordability and homebuilding in the 2026 Realtor Housing Report Card.
Orthodox Jews tend to have larger families and require more spacious homes or costly additions to their existing homes that are increasingly out of reach for them in New York.
Perlstein said that the locals of the population 13,270 Glades County have welcomed their new neighbors with open arms, and his investment in Glades County has been a boon for the local economy.
“It’s a paradise, the weather is nice, the people are nice, everyone is so welcoming,” Perlstein said.
However, the mother of four, who works as an educator in the town along with her husband, said that while business owners have been friendly, she’s faced hostility from some local residents.
However, online hatemongers like Jake Lang and “The Jersey Goy” Jeffrey Walstein have descended on the quiet town and have launched vicious social media campaigns against the Jewish residents.
Lang visited the town once on October 13, and Walstein arrived the following day.
“They don’t assimilate, they eat their own food, speak their own language, they worship their own God, they don’t dress like us, they are not Americans,” Lang snarled outside the community in a viral video, referring to the residents.
Perlstein said the local authorities have done a great job protecting the community from the influencers, but residents are still nervous.
“Millions of people watch him, all it takes is one crazy person,” he said.
“We’re just a few people in no man’s land, We’re here to build our families, build our community, be nice to our neighbors,” the local mother of four said.
https://nypost.com/2026/10/25/us-news/orthodox-jews-flee-ny-for-florida-amid-rising-antisemitism/
Thursday, October 22, 2026
'Hidden costs of homeownership top $16.5K/year, up nearly 32% in 5 years'
A Zillow and Thumbtack analysis finds insurance is the fastest-rising cost of owning a home, while the overall pace of growth has slowed
Insurance, maintenance and property taxes now cost the typical U.S. homeowner $16,566 per year, about $1,380 a month on top of a mortgage payment.
The pace is cooling. Hidden costs are up 32% over five years but just 3% over the past year.
Insurance premiums are climbing the most. In Houston, Phoenix, Denver and Nashville, homeowners now pay more for insurance than for property taxes.
Buying a home comes with a price tag, but keeping that home comes with a second one. A new analysis from Zillow® and Thumbtack finds that the hidden costs of homeownership, which include maintenance, property taxes and homeowners insurance, now add up to $16,566 per year nationwide, or about $1,380 a month, on top of a monthly mortgage payment.
Here's how those costs break down for the typical U.S. homeowner:
$11,171 on annual maintenance
$2,266 on homeowners insurance
$3,129 on property taxes
Over the past five years, homeowners insurance premiums have jumped 54%, maintenance costs have risen 32%, and property taxes have gone up 19%. But the pace is cooling. Overall, the cost of owning a home rose just 3% in the past year, compared with 32% over five years.
Maintenance shows the clearest slowdown. Yearly increases in maintenance costs have shrunk every year, from 9% in 2022 to 1% in 2026. Insurance may be following the same path. Federal data shows insurance premiums rose just 0.3% between February and June 2026, though they remain well above where they were five years ago.
The biggest jumps have been in a handful of metros. Insurance premiums are up at least 50% over five years in 19 of the 30 metros analyzed, led by Dallas (75%), Tampa (71%), Denver (70%) and Houston (69%). Miami homeowners pay the most, at nearly $5,000 a year. Six metros now top $3,000 a year: Miami, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Orlando and Denver. Homeowners in Houston, Phoenix, Denver and Nashville pay more each year for insurance than for property taxes. Severe weather, including hail, tornadoes and damaging winds, may be driving premium increases in storm-prone metros like Dallas and Denver.
Maintenance remains the largest hidden cost everywhere, at roughly two-thirds of the national total, and tops $12,000 in six major metros, including Seattle ($12,594) and Boston ($12,486). Los Angeles experienced the sharpest surge in maintenance expenses, jumping 27% year over year. This steep rise reflects a mix of regional factors, including wildfire-related recovery efforts, heightened demand for home services, and persistently elevated labor costs.
"Many households focus so much on winning the home and underestimate what it costs to live in it," said Zillow Senior Economist Kara Ng. "Long after they receive the keys, insurance, taxes and upkeep are recurring expenses to plan for. Since these homeownership costs vary so much by market, home shoppers should run the numbers and understand what they can truly afford before they make an offer."
The total hidden costs of homeownership are highest in coastal metros: $25,111 in New York, $24,383 in San Francisco, $22,915 in Los Angeles and $22,096 in Boston. Even in the least costly metro analyzed, Phoenix, hidden costs run $14,187 a year.
"The slowdown in maintenance cost growth is welcome news for homeowners managing a lot of competing expenses," said Kendra Sinclair, Thumbtack's home trends expert. "Planning for regular upkeep throughout the year can help prevent bigger repair bills and protect your savings when something unexpected happens."
Here are four tips for prospective buyers:
Get an insurance quote before you make an offer. With premiums rising across the country, the cost of insuring a specific home can change what you can afford to pay for it.
Know your true buying power. Start with BuyAbilitySM, a personalized affordability tool available on the Zillow app. It lets you set a target monthly payment, which can be adjusted to account for these costs.
Plan for maintenance early. Maintenance is the biggest hidden cost in every metro analyzed. Thumbtack's free personalized maintenance guides, available on the Thumbtack app, help buyers anticipate upkeep and budget with confidence.
Reconsider the type of home you buy. A large single-family home with a big yard often comes with higher maintenance costs. Townhomes and condos may offer less upkeep, while new construction is cheaper by the square foot and typically needs fewer repairs in the near term.
Crunching the numbers
For this analysis, Zillow estimated annual property tax and homeowners insurance costs for a typical U.S. homeowner in each metro, then compared year-over-year and five-year changes. Thumbtack provided estimates for annual home maintenance costs. Pricing data is based on projects requested on Thumbtack and reported directly by the independent service professional or individual customers. The cost is a weighted index of yearly home maintenance projects, based on recommended yearly frequency, calculated quarterly using a moving average.
Metro | Hidden costs of | Hidden costs, 1-year | Hidden costs, 5-year |
United States | $16,566 | 2.8 % | 31.7 % |
New York, NY | $25,111 | 1.8 % | 13.8 % |
Los Angeles, CA | $22,915 | 15.9 % | 42.5 % |
Chicago, IL | $18,239 | 6.2 % | 19.8 % |
Dallas, TX | $17,598 | 2.6 % | 18.1 % |
Houston, TX | $16,529 | 3.4 % | 24.1 % |
Washington, DC | $18,663 | 3.1 % | 30.6 % |
Philadelphia, PA | $18,834 | 2.5 % | 31.7 % |
Miami, FL | $20,861 | 1.1 % | 42.8 % |
Atlanta, GA | $17,346 | -2.5 % | 33.4 % |
Boston, MA | $22,096 | 2.8 % | 27.1 % |
Phoenix, AZ | $14,187 | 5.3 % | 34.2 % |
San Francisco, CA | $24,383 | 3.4 % | 28.9 % |
Detroit, MI | $16,186 | 3.7 % | 30.0 % |
Seattle, WA | $21,354 | -1.5 % | 28.1 % |
Minneapolis, MN | $19,755 | 7.4 % | 41.3 % |
San Diego, CA | $20,718 | 3.1 % | 32.9 % |
Tampa, FL | $17,775 | 2.8 % | 44.4 % |
Denver, CO | $17,659 | 6.6 % | 36.2 % |
Baltimore, MD | $17,507 | 3.8 % | 35.3 % |
St. Louis, MO | $15,809 | 3.2 % | 22.8 % |
Orlando, FL | $17,327 | 3.6 % | 37.5 % |
Charlotte, NC | $15,364 | 5.9 % | 33.2 % |
Portland, OR | $19,656 | 6.4 % | 33.5 % |
Sacramento, CA | $18,883 | 5.6 % | 33.0 % |
Pittsburgh, PA | $15,619 | 3.0 % | 54.8 % |
Indianapolis, IN | $15,680 | 3.4 % | 36.3 % |
Cleveland, OH | $16,904 | 3.0 % | 32.2 % |
Nashville, TN | $15,538 | 2.8 % | 29.4 % |
Raleigh, NC | $16,181 | 0.1 % | 31.9 % |
Salt Lake City, UT | $15,553 | 6.2 % | 35.5 % |
Table ordered by market size https://finance.yahoo.com/real-estate/articles/hidden-costs-homeownership-top-16-120000796.html | |
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