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With housing problems for the nearly 100,000 migrants weighting heavily on civic leadersā minds, the problem of housing for New York Cityās rent-paying citizens has quietly been dwarfed. But rents are a growing concern, as they have steadily risen throughout the five boroughs. Meanwhile, a number of vacant office buildings sit unused, affecting the property values of the neighborhoods where they stay neglected. It all raises the question: how is New Yorkās economic health faring? Greg David is the Director of the Business and Economic Reporting program at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. He appeared on 710 WORās Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program to discuss how the Big Appleās financial outlook affects renters.
āWe have fewer people in New York than before the pandemic,ā David explained to Berman and Riedel. āOur recovery hasnāt been as strong from the pandemic, and [in] the rest of the country, rents this year stopped rising, while ours continued to rise. So thatās the question we went out to answer, and the answer is⦠kinda complicated.ā
Ultimately, though, Davidās answer boils down to two words: supply and demand. āWhen the pandemic hit, [people] all left all at once, so that helped to depress rents. But, because of that, when people did start to come back to the city⦠there werenāt the apartments coming on-line that should have because the people werenāt leaving anymore⦠Landlords really had market power, and that allowed them to start raising the rents.ā
As for any plans to convert office buildings to ease the crunch, David offered a less-than-bright horizon in the immediate future. āItās feasible, but at the moment it canāt happen because thereās a stalemate between (sic) the city and the real estate groups and the progressives in the legislature⦠so, nothing happened in Albany, there will be some conversions, itāll take a while, but without legislation, weāre not going to get many conversions.ā
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