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      N.Y.C. Board Set to Approve Rent Increases for 1 Million Apartments

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      The LatestA New York City panel is expected to approve rent increases for almost one million stabilized apartments on Monday evening. The carefully watched annual vote will highlight the city’s affordability crisis, a core struggle in New York and other cities across the nation.The nine-person panel, the Rent Guidelines Board, already voted in April to support an increase that could fall between 2 and 4.5 percent for one-year leases. It also voted to support two-year lease increases of between 4 and 6.5 percent. Those numbers are similar to what the board approved the past two years.The vote on Monday will set the final numbers, and landlords could start raising rents in October if the panel votes in favor of increases.About two million people live in rent-stabilized homes in New York City.Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesDeep Divisions: The votes over rent increases have drawn protests.Rent-stabilized apartments house roughly a quarter of the city’s population. In a city where rents on the open market have skyrocketed and available apartments are scarce, stabilized units are treasured finds. The median monthly rent was about $1,500 for a stabilized unit in 2023, compared with $2,000 for an unregulated apartment, according to a recent city survey. But tenants and their advocates have called on the city to freeze or reduce rents for stabilized units in recent years, as many New Yorkers struggle with the high cost of living. Landlords, for their part, have asked for increases to help cover the high costs of property taxes, insurance, mortgages and maintenance.The Rent Guidelines Board examines the factors affecting both constituencies when deciding whether to allow rent increases. The board consists of two members representing tenant interests, two representing the interests of owners and five representing the general public. All members are appointed by the mayor. The vote on Monday is set to be the third consecutive year of increases.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      What is a ‘Zombie Mortgage’?

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      Has your mortgage come back from the dead? It probably wasn’t really gone, it was likely just hiding. For most buyers, mortgages are the cornerstone of purchasing a home. Sometimes a second mortgage is necessary, too, to cover the down payment, for instance. But what happens if that second mortgage seems to have been forgiven but actually still exists? Introducing: the “zombie mortgage.”These aren’t creatures from the underworld, but mortgages that homeowners forgot about or lenders said they would write off, but didn’t, only to reappear years later, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As home prices continue to soar, zombie mortgages are seeing a “second wave,” said David Weber, a professor at the Creighton University School of Law. (The first wave, he said, occurred after the recession in the fall of 2008.)“The zombie nomenclature stuck because it was so catchy,” Mr. Weber said. “With these second mortgage issues that are going on right now, it’s not that they’re coming back to life. It’s just that they were laying dormant.” A homeowner might have no idea that a secondary lender is on the title to their property, Mr. Weber said, and the lender can choose to exercise their rights to the property when it becomes financially viable for them to do so. Here’s what to know about zombie mortgages and how to protect yourself. What is a zombie mortgage? The term originates from the aftermath of the foreclosure crisis in 2008 amid an increase in residential mortgage loans that defaulted, according to Andrea Boyack, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law. Lenders would start the foreclosure process or announce a default, but never follow up because they didn’t think they would be able to recoup their investment. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Derek Jeter (Finally) Snags a Buyer for His New York Castle

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      The Yankees legend initially put the compound on the market in 2018 for $14.25 million. This time, the asking price was $6.3 million.After years of swings and misses, the Yankees legend Derek Jeter has finally found a buyer for his compound in Orange County, N.Y. — after it was re-listed for less than half of its original asking price.The four-acre lakefront home in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., known as Tiedemann Castle, went into contract on May 25, two years after it failed to sell at auction, and six years after the Hall of Fame shortstop initially put it on the market for more than $14 million. The asking price was slashed to $6.3 million this year, and the sale is currently pending.The listing agent, Diane Mitchell of Wright Brothers Real Estate, declined to comment on the specifics of the deal, but said that she is “thrilled” that it’s finally under contract. The estate comprises three different parcels, according to the listing, including a main house, guesthouse, pool house and boat house. At more than 12,500 square feet, it has six bedrooms and 13 bathrooms.Mr. Jeter, the Yankees’ all-time leader in hits, has been trying to sell the property for six years.Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports, via USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConBuilt more than a century ago, the home’s distinguishing features are vast and lavish. There are five kitchens (four indoor, one outdoor), a lagoon, an infinity pool shaped like a baseball diamond, a game room and turrets. It has been compared to a medieval castle.Mr. Jeter bought the property in the early 2000s, at the peak of his baseball career. He initially listed it for $14.25 million in June 2018. In 2022, it went to auction, at which point Ms. Mitchell, who was the listing agent then as well, said in a statement that “the owner is serious about selling because the owner spends most of his time at other family-owned homes.” The auction, which had a minimum bid of $6.5 million, was unsuccessful, and the property was listed again last month.In recent years, Mr. Jeter has been reshaping other aspects of his real estate portfolio as well. In 2020, he listed his custom-built, 30,875-square-foot mansion in Tampa, Fla., for $29 million. It sold the following year for $22.5 million, becoming the region’s most expensive home sale at the time. Last year, The Tampa Bay Times reported that the home was set to be demolished and replaced with new mansion.Steven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographyIn the village of Greenwood Lake, which is around 50 miles north of Manhattan, the median listing price is $475,000, according to Realtor.com.For Mr. Jeter, who was born in Pequannock Township, N.J., and grew up in Michigan, the estate holds sentimental value. His grandfather, William “Sonny” Connors, was the adopted son of John and Julia Tiedemann, who previously owned the home, and the future Yankee captain spent summers there, according to Ian O’Connor’s 2011 book, “The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter.” At the time, Mr. O’Connor wrote, he “was not looking for a chance to swim as much as he was looking for a partner in a game of catch.” More

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      Housing Costs Cool, but Remain a Source of Concern

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      Overall inflation cooled sharply last month, but one of the most important categories of consumer prices — housing — remained stubborn.Housing costs, as measured in the Consumer Price Index, were up 5.4 percent in May from a year earlier. That was the smallest increase in more than two years, down from a peak rate of more than 8 percent in 2023.But on a month-to-month basis, housing costs were up 0.4 percent in May for the second month in a row, defying forecasters’ hopes for a continued slowdown. Over the past three months, shelter costs have risen at an annual rate of 5.2 percent.Housing is by far the largest monthly expense for most families, and therefore also weighs heavily in inflation calculations, accounting for more than a third of the Consumer Price Index. That means it will be hard for the Federal Reserve to bring inflation fully under control as long as housing costs continue to rise at their recent rate. Before the pandemic, the shelter index rose at a rate of about 3.5 percent per year.Forecasters have been expecting housing inflation to cool because data from private companies like Zillow and Apartment List have shown rents rising more slowly or even falling outright in some parts of the country. (Inflation measures use rent data to calculate housing costs for both renters and homeowners.)The rent index used in the Consumer Price Index tends to move more slowly than the private-sector measures because of methodological and conceptual differences. The private measures, for example, include rents for homes only when they turn over to new tenants; the government’s measure tries to capture monthly expenses for all renters, including those who renew their leases.Still, economists have been surprised by how long the gap between the measures has persisted. Some of them have begun to worry that the pandemic, demographic shifts or other forces might have caused changes in the housing market that would keep housing inflation — at least as measured in the Consumer Price Index — elevated for an extended period.Adding to that concern: Private-sector rent measures have shown signs of picking up again recently as a boom in new apartment construction has faded.“I think that the multifamily market will see continued rents decelerate, but we won’t see rents declining nationally,” said Ivy Zelman, co-founder of Zelman and Associates, a housing research firm. More

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      East Hampton Locals Rally Against Zero Bond

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      Scott Sartiano proposed bringing his Manhattan-based members-only hot spot, Zero Bond, to a historic village inn. Local residents are not rolling out the red carpet.Whether it’s complaints about air traffic at the East Hampton airport, teenagers partying on the beach or the arrival of Uber and Lyft drivers, the controversies that dominate the news cycle on the East End of Long Island, N.Y., are usually about one thing: noise — and who, in a place where residents are used to getting nearly everything they want, is allowed to make it.This summer, media fireworks are popping over Zero Bond, the members-only club in Lower Manhattan that is attempting to open an outpost here four years after it became the ne plus ultra of downtown status spots — the place Page Six wrote about because it was where Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson had their second date, where Gigi Hadid celebrated her 27th birthday, where Elon Musk hosted his after party for the Met Gala and where Eric Adams made himself at home during his 2021 mayoral campaign.Much like that of a Birkin bag, Zero Bond’s appeal is due (at least in part) to how difficult it is to gain access. As its founder, Scott Sartiano, has said, “You can’t buy cool.”Although having money helps: After submitting an application, a suggested letter of recommendation from a current member and a headshot, anyone who wishes to join the club must also pay a onetime initiation fee and yearly dues, which increase with the age of the applicant. (Those under 28 pay a $750 onetime fee and $2,750 annually; those over 45, a $5,000 initiation fee and $4,400 annually.)The Stephen Talkhouse, in Amagansett, has hosted shows by the likes of Jon Bon Jovi and Jimmy Buffett (who tended bar during a Coldplay performance).Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for SiriusXMMr. Sartiano’s efforts to establish his private club in a centuries-old building known as the Hedges Inn, currently a 13-room luxury bed-and-breakfast, have been widely reported. But while he is said to be negotiating to lease the property, even town officials do not have confirmation of whether an agreement has been signed.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Stuck at the Start

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      In the last few years, many Americans have gotten stuck in their starter house.Buying your first home has long been a milestone of adulthood. So has selling your first home and moving into something bigger. But in the last few years, many Americans have gotten stuck in their starter house.That’s because the U.S. housing economy is being hammered by three forces: the highest interest rates in around two decades, record home prices and near rock-bottom inventory. “Home affordability is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” Daryl Fairweather, Redfin’s chief economist, told me.Many of those who bought their homes in recent years are unable to trade up, hampering the ability of the group behind them to purchase its own starter homes. In today’s newsletter, we’ll look at how the housing market trapped both groups.Twice as expensiveIn the past, the starter home served as a bridge: Families just starting out would squeeze into a smaller home and build equity. With time, as their careers grew and their incomes increased, they cashed in the equity and moved to something bigger.But now that process has hit a wall. “The trade-up buyer has just disappeared,” Sam Khater, chief economist of Freddie Mac, said.A majority of homeowners — six out of 10 — have mortgages with interest rates that are locked at 4 percent or lower. With rates now hovering around 7 percent, most people who buy a home today will pay much more interest on their new mortgage.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      I.M.F. Is Upbeat on China’s Growth but Questions Industrial Policy

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      Surging exports and factory investment are buoying China’s output, but the housing market faces serious troubles and industrial policies may hurt other countries.Responding to China’s surging exports and extensive investments in new factories, the International Monetary Fund made sizable increases on Wednesday in how much it believes China’s economy will grow this year and next.The I.M.F. now estimates that China will grow 5 percent this year and 4.5 percent in 2025. That is 0.4 percentage points more for each year compared with the fund’s predictions just six weeks ago.China’s gross domestic output expanded 5.2 percent last year as the economy rebounded following nearly three years of stringent pandemic policies that included numerous municipal lockdowns and mandatory quarantines. Many economists, including at the I.M.F., had anticipated that growth would falter this year because of a severe contraction of China’s housing market and a slowdown in domestic spending.Yet while property prices continued to fall and retail sales grew sluggishly, China’s economy powered ahead instead in the first three months of this year, expanding at an annual rate of about 6.6 percent because of booming exports and strong factory investments.The Chinese government is taking steps to address the housing crash, but it faces enormous challenges. Years of overbuilding have resulted in four million new but unsold apartments and, by one conservative estimate, as many as 10 million that developers have sold but not finished building.Many owners of vacant apartments now find themselves facing years of hefty mortgage payments but little chance the apartments will appreciate significantly in value.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Judge Approves $418 Million Settlement That Will Change Real Estate Commissions

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      Home sellers will no longer be required to offer commission to a buyer’s agent when they sell their property, under an agreement with the National Association of Realtors.A settlement that will rewrite the way many real estate agents are paid in the United States has received preliminary approval from a federal judge.On Tuesday morning, Judge Stephen R. Bough, a United States district judge, signed off on an agreement between the National Association of Realtors and home sellers who sued the real estate trade group over its longstanding rules on commissions to agents that they say forced them to pay excessive fees. The agreement is still subject to a hearing for final court approval, which is expected to be held on Nov. 22. But that hearing is largely a formality, and Judge Bough’s action in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri now paves the way for N.A.R. to begin implementing the sweeping rule changes required by the deal. The changes will likely go into full effect among brokerages across the country by Sept. 16. N.A.R., in a statement from spokesman Mantill Williams, welcomed the settlement’s preliminary approval.“It has always been N.A.R.’s goal to resolve this litigation in a way that preserves consumer choice and protects our members to the greatest extent possible,” he said in an email. “There are strong grounds for the court to approve this settlement because it is in the best interests of all parties and class members.”N.A.R. reached the agreement in March to settle the lawsuit, and a series of similar claims, by making the changes and paying $418 million in damages. Months earlier, in October, a jury had reached a verdict that would have required the organization to pay at least $1.8 billion in damages, agreeing with homeowners who argued that N.A.R.’s rules on agent commissions forced them to pay excessive fees when they sold their property. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More