Unless you are related to someone in a rent-controlled apartment, or qualify for low-income housing, you are not getting into rent-controlled housing in Manhattan.
You will get into rent-stabilized housing. Here, the Rent Stabilization board meets annually to determine the maximum increase in one and two year leases that apartment owners can charge. It’s a thankless job, because no one is ever happy: renters say it is too much and landlords reply too little.
If you stay in a rent-stabilized apartment long enough, eventually you will likely be living below market value (MV) in that apartment, i.e. the same apartment next door is renting for 25%+ more than you are paying. ISTR that landlords were granted the ability to raise rents on apartments whose leases expire to market rates (and if you are thinking landlords can just evict tenants paying below MV, you would be mistaken. Eviction is hard, and next to impossible just to raise the rate). I haven’t been a renter in quite awhile, so I’m not 100% sure about that. Leases are not transferable. I don’t know if this is mandatory or not, but my friend who lived in Manhattan with roommates could swap names on the lease, as long as one person from the previous lease remained. He’s the only one I ever talked leases with - I don’t know the story with my other apartment-dwelling friends.
sugar and spice, I’m going to take a little exception to your statement about SAFE neighborhoods. There are plenty of safe neighborhoods throughout Queens (more than when I was born here 40+ years ago). Now, I know nothing about you, and you may not have meant it this way, so humble apologies in advance if I’m reading this the wrong way, but these other safe neighborhoods may just be more…colorful…than Sunnyside / Kew Gardens / Astoria / Forest Hills. Places like North Richmond Hill, Jackson Heights, Cambria Heights (which really isn’t renter-friendly), Ozone Park, Rego Park and so on are just as safe. I say this as someone who rented in one of the former and now owns in one of the later, and who has spent well over 1/2 of his 4+ decades living in Queens.
You absolutely right, I’m familiar with Jackson Heights and its a wonderful neighborhood. I don’t know the other areas but obviously you do. FWIW, Sunnyside has a large hispanic population, so I don’t feel that my post could be taken to mean that only white neighborhoods are safe. (And you gotta admit that Ozone Park is kinda far away). And I’m sure you’ll agree that there are neighborhoods in New York City that are not safe, especially if you plan to be taking the train home late at night. My point is that while it is possible for a to get a stabilized apartment in NYC, in practice another arrangement is often safer and more realistic. I was very lucky and had a cosigner or a job the entire time I lived in NYC, but I had other female friends who were not so lucky and I was speaking based on what I saw them go through with housing.
Ozone Park isn’t bad if you are going downtown, as it is near the A train down by Lefferts and Liberty. Cambria Heights would be harder, as would any town without subway access. Commute-wise, no one I know from Flushing enjoys their commute.
That said, even outer-borough renting is expensive by most of the nation’s standards, and landlords do their best to ensure that their renters can afford to pay. NYC and its environs is not someplace one can easily move and then search for a job.
I am not a big fan of rent control in any of its forms, but I also think that there is something wrong about treating housing the same as any other commodity. Consider the plight of someone living in a NYC without those controls. They find an apartment in a neighborhood they can afford (at current market rates). Two years later their lease is up, their neighborhood has suddenly become trendy and their rent (still market rate) goes up by 50%. They have to move. Two years later they might very well find themselves in the same situation. This is corrosive both to the life of the family and the life of the community (not a given, perhaps, but MHO). The outer boroughs, by the way, are not immune from these fast changes and will come to be affected by them more and more.
Yes, I’m sure it’s fine if you are just commuting 9-5, but if you’re a waitress and work until 1am its starts to look like a huge sacrifice. My point is that, as you said, NYC is a hard place to move to, and I personally feel that it’s a myth that rent stablization benefits “young people starting out”, ie, people without documented income or savings who do not ALREADY have a lease in the family. It may be their own choice not to enter the system, but their housing choices are at least partially influenced by practical considerations. Instead, what happens is that new leases go to people like myself, who (at the time) have nice jobs and can save up the $1K+ for a brokers fee. While I lived in NYC, I was the only woman in my circle of friends who personally had the protection of a lease, but I was also the one who made the most money and had no student loans.
My wife and I moved to the Berkeley area (from the Midwest) back in 2004. Then, we recently moved again - within the same general area (but far enough to make a difference… long story).
Based on our experiences with looking at apartments, I can tell you that rent prices are all over the place, and a lot of buildings are still in the same conditions as you described (minimally maintained, patchwork DIY fixes, etc.).
I can’t really compare these experiences side-by-side with the ones you described, since we weren’t here while rent control was in effect. From what you posted, though, it really doesn’t sound like much has changed.
LilShieste
Not exactly. In San Francisco any apartment built after 1979 is not subject to rent control.
The rate of increase is based on the rate of inflation to a max to 4% once a year. If a tenant moves out, the owner may charge the the next tenant anything the market will bear.
There’s somewhat of a difference between rent control and rent stabilization, at least in NYC.
Rent Control in New York city applies only to residential buildings constructed prior to February, 1947 and continuously occupied by the same tenants since July, 1971 (in the case of a rent controlled house, since 1953.)
Rent Stabilization applies to properties constructed between 1947 and 1974 with six or more units as well as properties constructed prior to 1947 but with tenants who moved in after 1971. Properties with legal rents exceeding a certain amount can be removed from rent stabilization, if a wealthy tenant (defined by a certain amount of annual income) moves in, it can also remove rent stabilization from a unit. Unlike rent control, rent stabilization is attached to the unit and stays in effect even if one tenant moves out and a totally unrelated one moves in. Rent control is removed the moment the pre-1971 tenant leaves or dies.
Rent Control is fairly restrictive, each unit is given a “Maximum Base Rent” which is revised every two years, and the price is typically only very gradually increased. It is under the Rent Control system that you see people in neighborhoods with $2,000/month apartments with $300/month rents.
Rent stabilization allows an annual increase at a given rate across the system, in general rent stabilization apartments are way closer to the market rate than rent controlled ones.
It all depends on what you mean by “works,” doesn’t it? Rent control/stabilization is of limited or no help to young people, and it obviously hurts people who don’t live in non-stabilized housing (since the average rent is higher). It is equally obvious that it helps some people–especially older, established renters who have ties to the community. The question is whether it is worth the cost to everyone else.
If your goal is to help established renters keep their homes, then rent control works. If your goal is to have the lowest average housing costs for the whole community, or to have the most efficient housing market, it doesn’t. Economics tells you what what will happen if you do X, but contrary to what some people claim, it never tells you what you should or shouldn’t do. That depends on what you want.