We’re still waiting for the Supreme Court to decide whether it will even hear the Harmon challenge to rent control. The justices didn’t vote last week as scheduled and it is on the agenda for their conference again today.
Net operating income on rent stabilized buildings increased an average 1.8% from 2009 to 2010 according to an analysis of Income and Expense reports by the Rent Guidelines Board. Much of the gain came from commercial and ancillary income rather than rent increases, however. Taxes remained the biggest expense at 26.8 percent of operating costs. A comparison of registered legal rents with collected rents indicated a citywide vacancy and collection loss, including the effect of preferential rents, of 21.9 percent.
A second RGB report issued yesterday, on the Price Index of Operating Costs, concluded that expenses for stabilized buildings rose 2.8 percent in 2011-12, with property taxes the biggest area of increase at 7.5 percent. Utilities, including natural gas, were down and fuel oil was only slightly higher than the year before, but the Board staff projected a possible 21 percent increase in oil costs next year.
Mayor Bloomberg proposed legislation this week to require apartment owners to disclose smoking policies to new tenants, along with skatey-eight other disclosures no one reads.
The Department of Buildings adopted new licensing requirements for crane operators, opening the industry to qualified operators from out of state and breaking a local union stranglehold.
But cranes won’t be necessary in Brooklyn. The Landmarks Commission expanded the Park Slope Historic District, making it the largest in the City.