By Kim Velsey 2/27 10:41am

Foreclosure Crisis

A Queens homeowner facing foreclosure. (NYTimes)

New York City Foreclosures Linked to Crime

New York City has, in many ways, been spared the worst ravages of the foreclosure crisis. A city of renters, where single family homes are the exception rather than the norm and co-op and condo boards regularly turn their noses up at perfectly decent financial packages, we have avoided the magnitude of problems suffered by many other American cities.

But foreclosures have still troubled the city—and often indirectly. For example, many renters in overleveraged multi-family properties suffered when landlords fell behind on payments and ceased to conduct maintenance. And where foreclosures have hit New York, they have also been tied to increases in crime, according to a new report by NYU’s Furman Center for Real Estate & Urban Policy. Read More

By Kim Velsey 6/25/12 3:39pm

Of Doormen and Drama

The defaulting couple (Patrick McMullen)

A Foreclosure at New York’s Fanciest Co-op? Seizure of Swig’s 740 Park Spread Moves Ahead

Not even the most coveted address or the most celebrated building is immune from the occasional financial contretemps, it would seem, regardless of the building’s all cash financing requirements.

Foreclosure proceedings are moving full-force ahead on the 740 Park Avenue apartment of Kent Swig and estranged wife Elizabeth Macklowe Swig, reports Michael Gross, the author of the consummate book on the consummate building. Read More

By Matt Chaban 10/13/11 5:29pm

This Old House

Let's foreclose on the jail house! (WCBS)

Occupy Wall Street Comes to Brooklyn, Promptly Arrested

A small group of Occupy Wall Street protestors crossed the river today, arriving in the borough of Kings for the first time since the mass arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge. They were there to protest foreclosures, which they did by occupying a foreclosure auction at the country courthouse. Things turned out kinda how they have been since the protests launched almost a month ago: a mix of excitement and annoyance from the onlookers, some middling chants, and eventually, handcuffs. Read More

By Matt Chaban 1/17/11 10:56pm

Panics

We're Running Out of Apartments! (Well, Maybe Not)

The typical picture of the housing crisis in America is miles of empty tract homes and half-built lots, years away from ever being filled. In New York the story is a little different, and The Times weekend Real Estate section paints a both bleaker and better picture in a rather alarmist article about the coming apartment Read More