For some reason, you did not read in the morning paper that the City added Rent Stabilized units in 2013, for the first time since at least 2003. The Rent Guidelines Board.  reported yesterday that there was a net estimated gain of 1,087 stabilized units last year, mostly due to the 421a and 421c tax incentive programs, despite losses from luxury decontrol and conversion.

The Furman Center’s State of New York City’s Housing and Neighborhoods in 2013, issued Wednesday, confirmed that 12,477 units received certificates of occupancy in 2013, up 32 percent from 2012, but still below pre-boom levels. Most of these new units were in buildings of 50 units or more. The report focused on income inequality, comparing income distributions from 1990 and 2006, when the stock market was down, to 2013, when it boomed. Critics have noted that much of the income disparity seen in recent years has to do with capital gains in the financial markets. The report breaks down housing and population data by community board with some predictable and not so predictable results. The highest median incomes are in Greenwich Village and the Financial District while the lowest are in Mott Haven and Hunts Point. The area with the highest  vacancy rate is St. George/Stapleton on Staten Island at 11.3 percent. The lowest is in Washington Heights/Inwood at 1.3 percent. Washington Heights/Inwood is also among the bottom five community boards for percent of market rate housing, racial diversity, sales volume and new certificates of occupancy. It is in the top five for percentage of rent regulated units and sales price appreciation.

It may take two years for the de Blasio administration to follow up on Bloomberg’s proposal to rezone 73 blocks of Midtown East to encourage modern office development, but the Mayor announced yesterday that they would deal with five blocks right away to permit a proposed 65-story tower on Vanderbilt Avenue. While talking about major zoning density changes, the Mayor keeps addressing specific buildings project by project.

It is time to take your money off the table again. Get a free rebate for building products you have already bought by filing with the Home Builders Association rebate program.

The Mayor’s development team was out and about  revealing tidbits of his housing and zoning plans all week. Housing Commissioner Vicki Been told the City Council that inclusionary zoning plans would be crafted with economic integration in mind — specifically to put poor people in well-to-do neighborhoods and vice verse. Planning Commissioner Carl Weisbrod said fifteen neighborhoods would be targeted for higher density affordable housing development, starting with East New York, but that the inclusionary zoning mandates for each area would be customized based on community consultation and economics. Finally, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen said it would realistically take one to two years to revise and complete the East Midtown commercial rezoning proposed by former Mayor Bloomberg. Meanwhile, some individual building projects are moving ahead sooner.

On the anti-development side, the Landmarks Preservation Commission rejected a hardship application from the Stahl Organization to replace the First Avenue Estates, an early tenement development, with a new larger tower. Stahl will go to court.

Also this week, Mayor de Blasio signed legislation requiring insulation be wrapped around the exposed section of existing pipes whenever the pipe is exposed, effective October 1.

That and other more significant building code changes effective in October will be the subject of a free full day seminar offered by the Buildings Department, June 10th.

The Division of Homes and Community Renewal has also updated its operational bulletins and fact sheets for Rent Stabilization based on State code changes. The changes are being challenged in court by the Rent Stabilization Association and CHIP, but for the time being at least the new interpretations are here.

The City Council this week raised the income level for Senior Citizen Rent Increase Exemption eligibility from $29,000 to $50,000, effective for renewals and applications July 1st.

Mayor de Blasio stumped for his housing plan at the annual New York State Affordable Housing Association meeting, saying there will be a streamlined process for mandatory inclusionary zoning, reduced parking requirements in some areas, amended floor area caps, and new flexibility on floor-to-floor height rules. He also plans to cut times for getting permits and approvals, but has not yet appointed a Buildings Commissioner.

He is, however, expected to appoint a new chair for the Landmarks Preservation Commission soon. The Wall Street Journal reported today that he will name current Board of Standards and Appeals chair Meenakshi Srinivasan to the post.

Bills to reform Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seem to be dying in Washington, and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Melvin Watt does not seem interested in changing existing policies. He said this week that  he would not require the companies to reduce their purchases of loans on multifamily buildings this year.

Mayor de Blasio released his detailed 116-page Housing Plan, Monday, with these near term milestones: begin a study on mandatory inclusionary zoning; study existing inclusionary zoning rules; study how to speed the permitting and review process; and study vacant and underused public property  that could be developed. He proposed to double direct City capital spending on affordable housing over the next ten years, to  about $8.2 billion, but relies on almost $3 billion in State and Federal spending and another $30 billion in private equity to meet his goals.

Yesterday he released his Executive Budget Proposal, calling for no specific property tax increase but anticipating about $847 million in additional property tax collections from increased assessments and new buildings. That is about a 4.5 percent increase over all property classes.

The Mayor believes that limiting rents preserves housing, and his six new appointees to the Rent Guidelines Board followed up his Housing Plan, Monday night, by proposing Rent Stabilized renewal lease increases of 0 to 3.5 percent for one year leases and .5 to 4.5 percent increases for two year leases. The new owner representative that the Mayor just appointed even voted for the proposal. Final guidelines will be decided June 23rd after public hearings in the Bronx, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

Maybe building owners can save on energy costs by using incentives for combined heat and power systems (cogeneration).  NYSERDA is having a heat and power open house to explain the benefits May 20th, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Brooklyn Sheraton, 228 Duffield Street..

The irony department this week features tenant organizations lobbying Albany against bills to make subletting through Airbnb legal. They are mostly concerned about building owners rather than tenants abusing the system, but legislation proposed in Albany would allow subletting by “individuals that rent out their own units to help make ends meet and earn extra income.” Sounds a lot like landlords.

Finally, congratulations to ABO member Mike Fazio on his election as President of the New York State Builders Association Research and Education Foundation.

Mayor de Blasio delayed the expected release of his affordable housing plan yesterday to announce a new contract providing $3.4 billion in retroactive pay increases to teachers. He did not want the media coverage of the contract decision to take away from the importance of the housing plan. It is likely the housing plan will involve considerably less direct City funding than even just the retroactive pay raise for one City union.

If it is released this weekend, the housing plan may again be trumped in the headlines by a preliminary vote on rent guidelines for 2015. In the past, de Blasio has called for a rent freeze and he just appointed six members to the Rent Guidelines Board. The Board meets at 6 p.m. Monday in the U.S. Customs House at Bowling Green and will hold public hearings on their proposal later.

Brooklyn may have indirectly gotten a preview of the Mayor’s housing plan in hearing testimony by Borough President Eric Adams who wants a four mile stretch of Broadway in Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Bedford Stuyvesant up-zoned to allow ten story apartment buildings. Local councilmen are already leery of the proposal.

One year before rent regulations are up for renewal in Albany, DNAInfo has released an analysis showing that, in 2010, more than 22,000 rent stabilized households had incomes over $199,000 and 2300 had incomes over $500,000. And, of course, some were millionaires who will become poster-children for the stupidity of the law.

The Price Index of Operating Costs for rent stabilized apartments increased 5.7 percent over the past year, the Rent Guidelines Board announced yesterday. The Board had predicted a 2.6% increase, but significantly underestimated fuel costs. The projection for next year is 1.7 percent based largely on the idea that fuel costs will drop 8.6 percent.  Also yesterday, Mayor de Blasio appointed Rachel Godsil, a civil rights attorney to chair the RGB.

Comptroller Scott Stringer began a report he issued on affordable housing this week complaining that median rents in New York City rose 75 percent from 2000 to 2012. If he had waited a day for the Rent Guidelines Board 2014 Income and Expense Study, he could have calculated that property taxes went up 108 percent and City water rates went up 138 percent over the same time period. One fact Stringer did report was completely missed by the media: he said that “When long-term financing costs and the developer’s return on investment are factored in, plus typical monthly operating costs, the average new housing unit would need to rent for at least $2,600 month, even if it received full tax exemption.”

One expense that may moderate is water and sewer. DEP has proposed a 3.35 percent increase for 2015, the lowest in nine years.

The City Council reacted favorably to most of Mayor de Blasio’s budget proposals this week, but wants to create a property tax commission to study inequities in the system. It will no doubt take time for a commission to figure out how to make the system equitable without raising taxes on single family homeowners who vote.

One source of alternate revenue could be hotel taxes on Airbnb guests, if they were legal…but State Attorney General  Eric Schneiderman says more than half are illegal and is battling the tech company in court on the issue.

You have until Wednesday to cut your fuel costs next year by joining the ABO-FS Energy purchasing group.  Contact Thom Devlin for details today if you are not locked into a contract or have one expiring soon.  Otherwise, you will not be able to join until the Fall.

Mayor de Blasio, yesterday, pledged to have 500 Sandy-damaged homes rebuilt by the end of 2014. More than $1.2 billion is available for single and multifamily acquisition, repair and redevelopment. Contractors who want to get in on the projects have to be registered with the Choose-Your-Own-Contractor program under the Build-it-Back plan.

Earlier in the week, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District sued the Durst Organization for allegedly failing to comply with the Fair Housing Act in building the Helena apartment building in 2005. Durst insists that complying with New York City Local Law  58 meets the FHA requirements. The U.S. Attorney brought a similar action against the Related Companies a few weeks ago.

A State Appellate Term decision reported this week was also a head-scratcher. In Ansonia Assoc. vs. Unwin, the court rejected summary judgment in a non-primary residence case where the tenant filed taxes that listed her home upstate as her primary residence. The court noted that while otherwise State law held that “[a] party to litigation may not take a position contrary to a position taken in an income tax return” (12 NY3d at 422),” that reasoning could not necessarily be applied to “a primary residence analysis under rent stabilization, in which ‘no single factor shall be solely determinative’ (see Rent Stabilization Code [9 NYCRR] § 2520.6[u]).” In other words, one law for rent regulation and one law for everything else.

The Beechwood Organization, developer of Arverne by the Sea in Far Rockaway and other area projects, collected more than $60,000 in rebates on building supplies in 2013 from the NYSBA Member Rebate Program. You can too.

ConEd Solutions announced yesterday that it was dramatically increasing incentives this summer for demand response systems in buildings that could reduce electric use during peak load times. The example they gave was a 1.4 million sq. ft. office building that saved $178,000 last summer that could save about $300,000 this year.

Save even more with the ABO-FS Energy group purchasing plan for gas and electricity. Contact Thom Devlin for details today, the Spring aggregation is only weeks away.

Unemployment fell, tenant incomes went up, non-payment actions declined – although actual evictions increased slightly – and while homelessness rose, permanent placement of homeless families in regular housing also increased, according to the Rent Guidelines Board annual study of Income and Affordability released yesterday. Mayor de Blasio still has not appointed a new chair for the RGB.

Housing may be affordable for more seniors under a provision in the State Budget passed last week. Subject to City legislation, the State agreed to raise the income limit for SCRIE from $29,000 to $50,000 and pay the difference in lost City taxes.

Still, the Mayor’s plans for new housing may be stymied if legislation proposed by Manhattan Borough President Gail Brewer moves forward. She wants the Landmarks Preservation Commission to review every proposal to raze a building more than fifty years old…just about every new development proposal.

In other news of roadblocks to development, State Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal and City Council Member Mark Levine have both proposed legislation prohibiting discrimination in the provision of amenities to rent regulated or low income tenants in mixed income projects. Presumably, if passed, developers will have to charge separately for amenities such as gym memberships instead of just building costs into the market rents.

Two Housing Court cases reported this week highlighted the absurdity of New York rent laws. In G&L Holdings v. JR Gonzalez the court preserved succession rights for a tenant’s son while he spent six years in prison. And in 823 East 147th St. HDFC v. Hinnant, the court found that a tenant had additional due process rights against eviction because an HDFC was like a government entity and merely holding over wasn’t sufficient  reason for eviction.

Speaking of absurdity, U.S. Representative Charles Rangel, infamous for using stabilized apartments as an office, has new office issues at the State Office Building in Harlem. He does not pay the rent.

Do you pay a gas or electric bill? There are just a few weeks left to save money by joining the ABO-FS Energy buying pool this Spring. Join the largest aggregation of energy purchasers in the City and enjoy the power of numbers.

April 4, 2014 – The state legislature early this week approved Governor Cuomo’s proposed renter property tax credit as part of the 2014 – 2015  budget (part k). The credit will also benefit condo owners. As approved, it will give a credit to owners or renters whose real property tax or tax equivalent exceeds a percentage of their income according to a schedule in the law. The real property tax equivalent equals 15.75 percent of rent not including utilities. People earning up to $200,00 will be eligible. A tenant making $50,000, for example, paying $1,500 a month rent, not including utilities, would be eligible for a credit of 4.5 percent of the excess of $2,835 [15.75 percent of an $18,000 annual rent] over 4 percent of income [$2000], or a credit of $37.58. Credits are capped at $500.  The budget also includes more funding for the Low Income Housing Trust Fund and a two year extension of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit.

At the City level, Mayor De Blasio achieved State funding for his pre-k plan and said his next priority is affordable housing. He appointed three leaders of his Sandy Recovery Team to help neighborhoods that are still devastated, and named Michael Schlein as chairman of the EDC, but as of this morning, still has not named a Buildings Commissioner.

The Buildings Department, meanwhile, is beginning a series of seminars on changes in the Building Code effective in October. The first session is next week.

Mayor de Blasio appointed five members to the Rent Guidelines Board yesterday morning, minutes before their first meeting  of the year. Sarah Willard, a project manager for the Hudson Companies development on Roosevelt Island was named an owner representative. Cecilia Joza of the Mutual Housing Association and Steven Flax of M&T Bank were named as public members. Two tenant reps were also named. The Mayor still has to fill the vacant chairman’s slot.

Meanwhile, the RGB reviewed two reports yesterday. The annual mortgage survey found that the average rate on new multifamily mortgages in 2013 rose to 4.89 percent and the rate on refis was 4.91. Vacancy and collection losses were down and loan to value ratios up very slightly. A special report on the Price Index of Operating Costs found that it seemed to overstate cost increases relative to data from Income and Expense reports, probably because the PIOC tracks the cost of a market basket of services identified in 1983 while the I and E reports reflect shifts in what owners really buy.

The battle over public campaign finance heated up with the release by NYPIRG of a list of the top 170 donors to state-level campaigns in 2013. Lots of real estate companies, persons, and associations were on the list. The Rent Stabilization Association gave $277,100 to politicians. Its largest contribution was $175,000 to the NYS Senate Republican Campaign Committee. The Real Estate Board of New York donated $244,400. Its largest contributions were $25,000 each to Andrew Cuomo 2014, Inc., and the NYS Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee.

Only in New York department: A 63 year old woman is fighting for succession rights to a $100 a month rent-controlled one-bedroom apartment in Long Island City. The State Division of Housing ruled for the landlord and the tenant was reported this week to be appealing in Court. The case goes back to 2009, when the original tenant, then 85, adopted the woman 22 days before he died.