Blogs

As vaccine rollouts find success across the country, NYC citizens are ready to get back to business as usual after more than a year of social distancing and COVID-19 shutdowns—mostly. While New Yorkers laud the reopening of restaurants and cheer reunions with family and friends, they are less mot...

Around the country, housing inventory is soaring; sellers are easily getting more than the asking price because buyers are willing to duke it out over the property. But in Manhattan, more and more apartments are coming on the market, and buyers are not happy to pay more. In fact, they're looking ...

A Slow-Rising Tide A reliable report states what is pretty obvious to anyone who frequents New York's commercial districts: storefront retailers still face severe pandemic aftershocks. Urban workers and commuters haven't yet returned to Manhattan and other commercial districts in pre-pandemic nu...

The Current Eviction Moratorium The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all of us in almost every facet of our lives. The effects of the pandemic have kept people out of work and have disrupted many people's income and ability to earn a living. Due to these disruptions, many protections were put in p...

In an effort to avert a possible deluge of foreclosures and evictions due to the ongoing pandemic emergency, the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB) has proposed a new rule that would halt all foreclosure proceedings against delinquent mortgage holders until January 2022. If made official, ...

Everyone enjoys a good home makeover. For the last year, many of us have been stuck in our homes, daydreaming about what changes we would make. Now with extra cash in our pockets, we're ready to make those renovations happen. Except that now the global supply chain is causing delays. From lumber...

Just as the Emergency Eviction and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2020 and the COVID-19 Emergency Protect Our Small Businesses Act of 2021 were set to expire, New York lawmakers agreed to extend these protections until the end of August. This news comes just weeks after Governor Cuomo signed the 2...

It might surprise you how long a resolute buyer of a New York residential property can remain in a home without paying the mortgage. Media report the remarkable story of one man's twenty-three-year battle with lenders and authorities, still ongoing, to remain in a home on which he has reportedly ...

New York City, with its bustling streets and central role in US economics, provided an eye into the breadth of the COVID-19 pandemic over the course of the past year. With drops in tourism (the hospitality industry previously generated $44 billion in annual spending), high unemployment rates, and...

Where the Market's Just Been The pandemic still casts a mighty big shadow over New York City's real estate market. You can't get a clear view of the up-to-the-minute market without at least a snapshot of where that market has recently been. No question remains that the pandemic spurred a massive...

As they grappled with the frightening pandemic, millions of homeowners took due advantage of federal mortgage-forbearance legislation, relieving them of home mortgage payments for up to twelve months. With the pandemic's onset now more than twelve months ago, the Federal Housing Finance Agency re...

It's no secret that the coronavirus pandemic has hit New York City's restaurants the hardest. At the beginning of the pandemic, when NYC was the epicenter, all restaurants were forced to close down. Some were able to keep their doors open with takeout, but the amount of spending New Yorkers were ...

Commercial real estate developers and landlords in New York City anticipated a downturn in the market when the coronavirus pandemic struck. They just didn't realize it would last this long and run this deep. The NYC commercial real-estate market is in an all-out crisis right now, with thousands ...

Short-term real estate loans can represent opportunity. In New York, in 2021, on the heels of the pandemic, that's all that many borrowers seek. Over the course of 2020, many property owners had to shelve any commercial real estate projects they had planned. Their customers were staying at home....

It's not how much money you have but how you manage it. That may be the big lesson to draw from a reported foreclosure auction coming up on former billionaire hedge-fund manager Phil Falcone's enormous East 67th Street townhouse and lavish Hamptons estate. Another media story puts the listing pri...

While number-crunchers are pretty good at predicting market fluctuations, it's remarkable how a “black swan” event like a global pandemic can throw those predictions out the window. At a time when millions are actively fleeing cities and looking for more space to “quarantine at home,” housing inv...

Here we are in 2021, with the pandemic no longer new. While 2020's fear may for some have turned into 2021's weariness, others of us are looking again at the opportunities that the times afford. However, we do so not through rose-colored glasses but instead informed, if no longer frightened off, ...

After years of inconsistent New York decisions focused on the state's statute of limitations for mortgage foreclosure actions, the New York Court of Appeals declared some bright-line rules in a recent opinion that should bring clarity to debt acceleration and revocation. The ruling resolves a spl...

2020 was a volatile year for the commercial real estate industry. A record number of businesses temporarily or permanently shut their doors as they grappled with the impact of COVID-19. As tenants struggled to pay their rent, many real estate owners failed to stay current on their mortgages. Alt...

Even before Coronavirus, the Times Square Center building at 229 West 43rd Street was under financial duress. But the economic fallout that has ravaged New York City due to the pandemic may have just pushed it over the edge. According to Bloomberg, the Kushner-owned building may be on its way to ...

New York City residents have been through a rough year, especially after the spring's COVID-19 circumstances. As the pandemic continues, many factors would seem to indicate that everything is dire. For example, a recent report issued by Unacast asserts that roughly 70,000 (net) residents have lef...

With unemployment continuing to run rampant due to the ongoing pandemic, millions of families across the country face an uncertain future regarding their homes. A recent survey by the Census Bureau shows that 18 million Americans are behind on their rent or mortgage payments, and up to 6 million ...

In the month that COVID infections in New York passed one million, the city learned that an iconic Manhattan institution would be closing. Back in December, when Gov Andrew Cuomo announced another city-wide ban on indoor dining in New York, historic restaurant The 21 Club made their own announce...

In 2019, NYC real estate taxes generated $31.9 billion, accounting for 53% of the city's total tax revenue. Then the pandemic hit, and everything changed. By November 2020, 8 months into the COVID-19 epidemic, real estate sales were down 49%, and the city reported a $1.2 billion loss in revenue. ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit real estate hard over the last nine months, and the hospitality industry is struggling. Some New York City hotels were already struggling to make debt payments, and the worldwide epidemic was the final blow. The Tillary Hotel The owner of the Tillary Hotel in Brook...